The Phoenix Trials
by O Tuachair N Kaye
Summary: The time of the Charmed Ones is over. The time of peace is over. The time of the three Halliwell brothers is on... They just don't exactly know it.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **We do not own Charmed in any way, shape, or fashion. If somebody were to suddenly hand it over to us, though... yup, we'd take it.

**Summary:** Piper reminisces about her three boys, remembering how each of them grew up with the most normal life possible while still being inherently magical until the time that they each left the house, leaving to experience life on their own.

**Authors' Notes:** There are two people writing this fic, first of all! There is O' Tuachair and Kaye (which explains our name, of course). This is Kaye typing right now. O' Tuachair has gone to bed already, considering it is already past midnight. She is sane. Kaye is not. Which is me. I'm not sane. Right.

A few things... here is a quick list of who writes for which characters. Any characters not listed are written by both of us just for time sake.

Kaye: Wyatt, Leo Jr, Leo Sr, and Phoebe.

O' Tuachair: Chris, Piper, Derek Jr, and Michael.

Also, Derek Jr is the demon baby that was seen in the season six episode "Nature vs Nurture". We plan on this being a grand epic filled with 23 episodes, just like the regular season. Enjoy the prologue and have fun meeting the characters. The cast list is on our bio page, in case you were wondering.

Constructive criticism is welcome!

Enjoy!

* * *

**The Phoenix Trials**

**Prologue**

It was a long day. Piper looked down at the sleeping babe in the cradle as she realized she needed a name for this last child. It was a boy as well, notifying Piper that the future had changed for the better.

What should it be? She had already gone through Leo's family names, for the most part anyway. Should she go for the P-names? No, there's no point, not anymore at least, she had already violated that rule long ago.

Blue eyes stared up at the eldest charmed sister as she gazed down at her new son lovingly. The blue would probably fade in a few weeks – Wyatt was the only son who had kept Leo's blue eyes. Beautiful eyes, to be sure, but she knew with her son's dark head of hair that the boy would most likely take after his mother and his aunts.

A sigh fell past Piper's lips as the weariness of the past week settled upon her like a blanket. The stress of giving birth and recovering had taken a toll upon her body; she was just happy to be safe at home with her baby. And as a hand snaked around her waist and a strong jaw settled upon her shoulder, she knew she was not the only one.

"He's so beautiful – just like his mommy," Leo breathed into her ear.

"Beautiful doesn't even begin to cover those gorgeous eyes, Leo." Piper had sudden inspiration. "Leo."

Leo lifted his head slightly, turning to look Piper in the face. "What is it?"

"Huh?" Piper stared at Leo blankly. "Oh-nothing."

Nine and a half months ago, Piper would have never thought that this day would come. Piper and Leo didn't even know that she could get pregnant, or even that it would be a boy. She could remember the day perfectly, as if it were just this morning.

---

"_Piper, honey, are you okay?" _

_Leo's voice was muffled through the door, but Piper still caught the concern in his voice. She guessed that he was wondering what she had been doing in here for the past thirty minutes; there was no water running and no sounds of her doing anything. Truthfully, she had just sitting there, staring straight out ahead at the bathroom wall, trying to let the news sink in. _

_It was her husband's voice that prompted her to finally stand, the bathroom door swinging open as she unlocked and opened it. Leo was standing right outside the door with a sleeping Chris draped across his chest, the little boy sucking on his thumb as he dreamed. _

"_Piper," Leo repeated gently. "Is everything okay?" _

"_It depends."_

_Leo's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "On what?"_

_"On your reaction to the news..." Piper said in a gentle but serious undertone as she tried to find a way to answer his next question._

"_News?" The way Piper had said that word made Leo shift uncomfortably as he adjusted Chris in his arms. Now he was really worried. "What news?"_

_"Leo, I'm..." her brows furrowed, the scar in between one of them slowly splitting the eyebrow in two as she attempted to tell him. It was, after all, their first surprise. Surprises don't tend to happen in a world where your sister is a psychic and Angels tell you what your future is..."I'm pregnant."_

_Leo's eyes widened._

_"Now don't get too excited, it might not be true as of yet. I just...I missed a period, that's all…__Leo?"_

_Piper waited for a moment as stunned Leo stood in silence.__She took Chris from him, as he seemed to be getting restless, and walked away. Leo never moved an inch._

---

Leo, Piper thought. Leo was the perfect name.

---

Wyatt's prattle had been going on nonstop for the past thirty minutes, but the seven-year-old seemed to have no interest in stopping what he was talking about. Right now, the subject was his friend Charlie's pet snake. Who exactly Charlie was and how Wyatt was friends with him, Piper was not sure as she had tuned him out over twenty minutes ago.

From the way that Chris was idly poking at his lunch without really reacting to what Wyatt was saying showed that he had also tuned his brother out and was somewhere far off in dreamland. Even if her eldest son could go on for hours talking about nonsense, she loved him anyway. She was just so glad that he had grown up to be a happy, healthy boy just like she – and her second eldest son from the future – had always dreamed.

"…Mom, where's Dad?"

Wyatt's sudden question caught Piper off guard for a moment. She glanced toward her husband's empty chair and toward the empty highchair reserved for her last son and frowned. She had sent Leo to go grab their youngest about the time that Wyatt had started talking and they had not arrived yet. Where could they be?

Piper followed the route to the nursery as usual. Whatever happened to her husband... Well, she would deal with that after little Leo ate. He was probably starving by now. He was teething, and she had a carrot ready for his poor new tooth. Poor Leo had probably been crying nonstop if his father didn't show up...

Piper's thought process melted when she entered the nursery. Even though the circumstances were a little worrisome, Piper felt the need to be proud of her youngest at the moment.

The picture in front of her was of her husband, her grown husband, bending down to pick up her son... only, something wasn't quite right. Leo Sr. was frozen.

"Leo, that was a very bad thing to do young man. What are you doing, freezing your daddy? Now, when we freeze people, they need to be bad men. Very bad men, okay, Leo?"

The toddler looked up at her and smiled. Piper picked him up and flicked her wrist. Leo unfroze.

Leo stared at her blankly, confusion written on his face, as she answered his thoughts, "Leo froze ya."

She proudly smiled a large smile and walked off, as Leo continued to look confused before following his witch.

---

"Wyatt, watch Chris while I'm putting Leo to sleep."

Wyatt glanced up from his homework (a worksheet of addition problems) and pouted. "But he's watching the _baby_ channel."

"I don't care. I have to put your brother to sleep. Finish your homework and keep an eye on, Chris; I'm trusting you."

Wyatt's pout deepened into a scowl. "Fine," he muttered gathering his homework and joining his little brother in the living room.

Piper picked up the fussy two-year old and walked away. For some reason, Leo was being more difficult than ever. The first time she tried to grab him for a nap he got up and ran away from her. She waited for a couple of minutes, knowing that his small legs would tire and she could easily get him then. He was kicking as she took him to the room, but she could easily stop that.

"Leo Victor Halliwell, you stop that right now. Do you want to make mommy mad?"

He stopped instantly. Piper still had it. She took him to the nursery and changed his clothes. His fidgeting was getting worse again, but she knew he couldn't do any harm, he was just tired.

She took him to the rocking chair and held him for a moment. He was a sucker for the rocking, and fell a sleep instantly. She put him down in the crib gently, before hearing voices from the other room. "What on earth?"

Piper left Leo's nursery, making sure to close the door behind her to block out the noise of her other two sons arguing (so her ears told her as she neared the living room). She entered the room, hands on hips and fire in her eyes, ready to stop the argument immediately… except that neither of her sons even seemed to notice her entrance.

Chris was standing with his back to his older brother, his small body guarding something from him that Piper saw was the remote. Wyatt was standing over him – already towering over his littler brother as he tried to grab for the object of their argument.

"C'mon, Chris! Sesame Street is a _baby_ show. It's meant for _babies_."

"_No it's not!"_

"Is too!"

"IS NOT!"

"IS TOO TIMES INFINITY!" Wyatt grinned smugly as if he had just come up with the cleverest thing to say ever before his expression turned into a pout-filled one. "You're such a baby, Chris! _Remote!_" Then, with a little dash of magic, the remote easily orbed into Wyatt's outstretched hand.

"Hey! That's not _fair_! Stop TAKING MY STUFF!" In a moment of flurry, Chris's five-year-old temper flared up. His eyes glared directly at his older brother with contempt, and with the flailing of his arms, he sent Wyatt flying through the air.

"CHRISTOPHER PERRY HALLIWELL! What did you just do?!" Piper shouted from her seat in the audience.

Chris, frightened by his mother's anger, began to cry while Wyatt wailed from the other end of the room. She knew Chris had just come into a new power, one that she had been expecting but had to remind herself that the green-eyed boy did not know how to control, but she couldn't help the yell. It was a natural reaction to her children fighting, and a quick flash to a time when grown Chris and Wyatt were literal enemies.

A sigh fell past her lips as regret started to settle upon her. She knew she should not have yelled, but she was just so frightened…

Wyatt's tear-filled blue eyes looked up at his mother as she knelt down beside him to inspect his scratched knees and palms. Luckily, Chris had not thrown his brother with much force and that was the worst of his injuries. The mother of three looked over her oldest son's head to pin Chris with her gaze.

"Chris. Apologize to your brother."

The green-eyed boy hesitated.

"_Now_."

"I-I'm s-sorry, Wyatt…"

Hearing those uncertain and frightened words made Piper's heart break and whatever anger she still had toward either son for their previous display vanished. At least nothing was broken. And at least they were both okay. And at least she knew they would _be_ okay.

---

"Paige? You couldn't sense him or anything? HOW COULD YOU NOT SENSE HIM?!" Piper paused for a moment to breathe. "I'm sorry, I'm just so...yeah, well, thanks for looking. No, no, Chris doesn't know where he sent him. He says that he wasn't really paying attention when he 'orbed' him… I don't know how you can orb somebody and not be concentrating when you do it, but I don't think he's lying… Yeah, he's pretty worked up over this… Yes, we will find him. Thank you again, Paige. Call me if you hear anything…. Thank you, bye."

The phone shut off with a click as Piper returned it back to the base. A shaky sigh fell past her lips, her hands shaking even as she tried to calm herself. There were just too many unknowns this time, too many things that could have happened – could be happening right now. And there was nothing she could do about it from right here.

She strode across the living room toward her purse, intent on driving around town for the fifth time in the past two hours, when she heard the front door open. Pausing in mid-motion, she turned toward her husband and oldest son who did not look at all victorious.

And Leo was not with them.

"You didn't find him."

It wasn't a question. Her husband simply hung his head, and something in Piper snapped.

"Leo! I don't know what to do. Where could he be? He's five years old and anybody could have him, and I don't know what to do!" Piper covered her face for a moment. She looked at Leo, scared of the next negative thing. "What if Leo's in a ditch somewhere! What if he's dead, or raped, or just plain hurt? What if demons found him and they kidnapped him? What if-"

"Shhhh," Leo hushed as he pulled his wife to him, wrapping his arms around her in a comforting embrace even though he knew that she would receive none. Piper was far too worked up over this and the only thing that would calm her down was for her youngest son to suddenly waltz right back into the Haliwell manner as if nothing had happened.

"Everything will be fine. We'll find him," he promised, even though he could not guarantee any such thing.

Wyatt looked up at his mother guiltily. "I'm sorry, Mom. I'm sorry that I can't sense him… I just don' know where to look for him and since I don't even know where Chris sent him…" He trailed off as he bowed his head again, feeling useless for probably the first time in his life. "I'm sorry."

The eldest brother did not blame Chris at all for what had happened. Leo, he knew, could be annoying at times, and if Chris had not snapped first, Wyatt was pretty sure that he would have. After all, it used to be a game with him, sending Chris all over the place through orbing. It used to drive his parents insane… but Chris always had the ability to orb back.

Leo didn't. And therein lied the problem.

A noise from above caught all of their attention and they turned toward the staircase where they could just see Chris peering over the banister near the top of the stairs down at them, riddled with guilt. He had been hiding in his room since the incident, unable to face his hysterical mother, worried father, and overprotective brother. And now, he had just heard what Wyatt had said.

This day was just getting better and better.

"Chris, honey? Come down here. You're not in trouble, I promise."

Chris walked slowly down the stairs, like a stray dog going to a hand held out for him. He was timid, but Piper was not going to punish him. When he was fully down the stairs, he began to cry. "I'm sorry, Mama. I'm so sorry, I don't know where he is, and I thought and thought, but I can't...I don't..."

"Shhh, you're not in trouble, sweetie. We'll find him, I promise. Just, stay in my sight, okay? We're going to go look for him together, okay?"

"Okay…"

She grabbed his hand in her left and grabbed her purse with her right. Maybe driving around _with_ Chris would help – it was a long shot, but she couldn't just sit here and do nothing!

Before she could even get out the doors, though, all four of them heard a jingling of orbs and turned to see a flurry of blue sparkles that disappeared to reveal Little Leo as he stumbled backwards and fell on his butt. This did not seem to faze him one bit, though, as he was looking around the house with large hazel eyes and a wide grin on his face.

"I did it…" he breathed out, completely unaware of the turmoil that his family had been under for the past two hours. He looked up at his mother and father with an even wider grin, completely proud of himself. "Mommy! Daddy! I did it! I orbed!"

---

Piper already knew that it was about time for the "witch" talk. The boys were plenty old enough, Wyatt being fourteen years old already, while Chris followed him at twelve, and Little Leo being nine years. It was time for the talk about personal gain, a concept that had taken herself and her sisters several mistakes to finally grasp.

Piper could not count how many times the boys had gotten themselves into trouble. Sooner or later, that trouble would bring the Cleaners into the mess, and she already knew what would happen then... And if not that Cleaners, then the Elders would surely intervene, and frankly, she wanted to see them even less than she wanted to see the Cleaners.

The house was eerily quiet as Piper walked through the hallways, a frown on her face. Where were those boys? It was not very often that they could remain this quiet for this long. Even worse, the last time that the house had been this quiet, it had ended with an explosion of demon guts – something that the eldest Charmed Witch would prefer not to relive.

Piper poked her head into Leo and Chris' room – one side messy as always with all of Leo's toys strewn about, the other side immaculate and clean, much like its owner, both of which happened to be nowhere in sight. She continued down the hall and looked into Wyatt's room, the mess being almost worse than the one on Leo's side of the room, but what made her frown even deeper was the way that the three boys who happened to actually be present and seemed to jump as she entered.

She raised a single eyebrow in question.

"Hi, Mom!" Leo flashed a very innocent smile as she walked in.

An innocent smile that he could usually not pull off at all. What was going on?

Piper looked around suspiciously. "What's going on?"

Wyatt looked to his with a smile on his face. "What do you mean, Mom? Nothing's going on."

Chris grinned a grin that lied against any innocence that the three supposedly had. "Yeah! Nothing!"

There was no way that Piper was going to buy any of that and her eyes just narrowed more in suspicion, but she could see nothing amiss and the connection that she felt with her boys did not feel off at all. More than likely, it was a small prank that they were playing or planning… but she could never know around these boys of hers.

The suspicious glances that Piper gave were enough to le her boys know that she knew something was up, she just wasn't sure of what it was. The boys suppressed their giggles and side glances to the best of their abilities.

"Now, boys, it's time for me to give you the talk."

Leo's eyebrows skyrocketed. "The talk?"

Chris blinked up at her confused. "What talk?"

Wyatt looked up at his mom, "Isn't that Dad's job? No offense, but you're a girl; this is a 'guy thing'."

"What's a 'guy thing'? Mom, what are they talking about?" Chris asked, head cocked to the side, his green eyes blinking up at her with innocent confusion.

Leo, on the other hand, seemed to know exactly where this was going as he shifted uncomfortably with a slight grimace. "Mom, is this really necessary?"

Piper laughed, knowing exactly what they were thinking. She looked at each of the boys. Before she spoke, however, she eyed each of her boys very carefully. They were sure responding to her very oddly, almost out of character.

Brushing that thought aside, she continued, "No, boys, not that talk...although your father should be giving that one soon enough. I think he's already talked to you, Wyatt. And if he hasn't, he _should_. But no matter; I mean a talk that your father wouldn't know much about... the 'witch talk'."

Piper stopped though. She thought about Leo's suddenly 'all knowing character', and Chris' ignorance of everything, and Wyatt's professional, middle ground attitude... She knew her boys better than to think that they hadn't switched character somehow... someway. She still didn't have any way to prove it though...

Piper decided to continue her long monologue for the boys, just the same old stuff: using the powers properly, the golden rule of witchcraft, "an ye harm none, do what ye will." The boys knew the gist of the Charmed Ones' story, but she brought the book down anyway. Or, she had Wyatt bring the book down. The boys had a moment of confusion as to which one was Wyatt... but that only added to her knowledge that they had switched... something...

She only pretended not to notice.

Chris squirmed where he sat. All of this talk of consequences and how even if his mother did not find out then the Powers that Be _would_ and he would be punished was sending him on edge. His mother was already scary enough without the whole group of Elders up there backing up whatever punishment she came up with that she deemed a worthy consequence. That thought alone sent his green eyes wide with fear.

Maybe this whole thing that he and his brothers were doing – not such a good idea.

"Mom… w-would we get in _big_ trouble if we played with magic?" he asked, his bottom lip trembling pathetically.

That was the clue... Chris was definitely Leo. But she refrained from letting them in on the fact that she knew the truth.

"Chris, let me let you in on a little secret. There are these people... well, Beings, to be more exact, that are called The Cleaners. If you ever play with magic in a bad way, even if it is in the littlest way possible, they will erase you."

Chris's eyes, if possible, went even wider at that. "E-erase m-me?"

Piper nodded gravely, while on the inside she was just waiting for her youngest – for now she knew that there was no doubt that Chris was actually her youngest – to crack. It didn't take more than another second before Chris's physique melted into that of Leo, trembling lip, watery hazel eyes, and all.

He threw himself at his mother, little tears leaking from his eyes, as he sobbed, "I don't wanna be erased, Mom. I'm s-sorry!"

Wyatt morphed back into Chris, scowling. "Ugh, stop crying. I can't believe you ruined it!"

Piper looked at Chris, surprised at the scowl in his voice. He was usually the mediator.

The extra Leo slowly changed back into Piper's eldest son who was wearing a perfect 'It wasn't my idea, I swear!' expression on his face. She shot him a disbelieving look, and he winced, knowing that he wouldn't get out of the punishment, no matter what he said.

"Er, hi, Mom! No personal gain, right? Yup! Great lesson. I heard every word."

He grinned sheepishly up at the stern look that his mother was wearing. Leo's small hiccups punctuated his statement and Wyatt sighed. Sometimes, being the oldest wasn't that much fun.

"Leo, calm down. You're not going to be erased," said Wyatt.

"I-I'm not?" Leo asked, avoiding looking at Chris who was still scowling at him.

"No. You're not," Wyatt promised. The blonde looked up at his mother hopefully – maybe he could earn some brownie points before she grounded them for using their powers so uselessly. Or maybe he could just get brownies! "Hey, Mom, guess what? We all got a new power!"

Wyatt grinned.

"Yeah, I noticed. Glamouring, huh? So, whose idea was it to pull the switch? If you step forward now, I will punish in the same respect as your brothers, but if I find out and you didn't tell me... be warned. Your father will hear about this."

"Awww, come on, Mom. He'll probably think this was funny anyway."

Piper thought for a moment. This was true. Leo Sr. did seem to find the humor in most acts committed by their sons...

Wyatt shared a grin with his oldest younger brother. "He'll probably take us out to celebrate, knowing Dad."

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Piper knew that her oldest son was telling the truth. Sometimes, it really sucked being outnumbered four men to one woman. Putting her foot down routine hardly ever got through and every time she adorned the black hat, the boys would go crying to her husband who would fall for it every time.

Despite all that, though, Piper was overwhelmingly proud of her sons. Maybe just this once, she'd let them off.

---

Piper glanced at the clock while her hands continued to move with expert ease. The double-dip chocolate fudge cake (Chris's favorite) was almost done being mixed and only needed to be popped into the oven to bake. From the time, she estimated that it would be done and iced just in time for her boys arrival from their various after school activities. With the whole family and several of his friends getting together later that night, this, Piper decided, would be one of Chris's best birthdays yet.

Fourteen. It was such a good age.

As the cake was put into the oven, the last thing the mother of three expected to hear was the opening of the manor door closely followed by the sound of her son's voices. She frowned in confusion that quickly turned to concern as the raised tones floating into the kitchen reached her ears. Piper set the oven's timer before rushing out into the living room to see what was up.

"Chris, are you going to tell us why you insisted we come straight home, or are we going to have to play guessing games all day?" Wyatt growled, obviously annoyed.

"Yeah, Chris, what's going on? I was supposed to make up my spelling test today, remember?" Leo whined, his reddened nose being the only left over signs of the cold that he was just recovering from. (Piper had threatened Wyatt with a grounding if he healed him - having a cold was a normal part of life, therefore there would be no healing for something as small as that. That, of course, didn't mean that she couldn't keep her youngest home and baby him to death, however. That was a mother's prerogative, after all.)

Chris paused, trying to find the words to say. He finally gave up on finding the right wording when he noticed Wyatt's annoyed look turn into one of anger. "I... came into a new power today. It was a premonition. I saw -" Chris stopped abruptly at the sense of his mother's presence. Powers or no powers... when one's mother is near; one has the sense to be able to tell. "I'll tell you more about it later."

Piper heard her middle-child speaking of his newest power. It was a moment of excitement for a mother of three witches.

"Happy Birthday!" Piper shouted. "New power, huh? Premonitions... Watch out for your Aunt Phoebe. She might attack you."

Chris cringed at the thought of Aunt Phoebe's large, lip-stick imprinted kisses that usually arrived with her, and this time he had no choice but to grin and bear it. That was the rule on birthdays, after all.

Wyatt glanced over at his younger brother, a small frown on his face that he hid from his mother. There was obviously something on Chris's mind, but he was not going to push his brother to talk in front of their mother. He was smarter than that. But later, when they were alone, he was going to find out what was up. There was no way that his little brother was going to pull him from hockey practice without an explanation. His coach was going to kill him - especially when he showed up tomorrow without a note.

"We're banned from the kitchen for the time being while you get ready for Chris's party, am I right?" he said, forcing a careless grin. The last thing he wanted to do was make his mother worry. The stern look that was shot his way made Wyatt hold up his hands in surrender. "Say no more; we'll go make ourselves scarce and still pretend to be surprised when we see the cake."

With that, Wyatt tugged on Chris's sleeve, pulling him toward the staircase as he muttered, "Come on."

Piper watched as her two oldest boys disappeared up the stairs quickly followed by her youngest. There was something going on, but as her boys got older, it got harder and harder to get them to talk to her. Leo, her dear sweet husband, called it a phase. She sure hoped that he was right about that. But as long as they weren't going into the underworld without her permission or something equally dangerous, she knew she could not punish them for it. They were just being normal teenagers... just like she always wanted.

Not knowing what else to do about her boys for the time being, Piper wandered back into the kitchen, intent on finishing that cake.

It was half an hour later, after her husband's arrival home from Magic School, that the buzzer for the oven finally went off. She gave Leo a quick kiss on the lips - God, she loved that man - before hurrying from the den into the kitchen to cut off the oven and pull out the cake to cool. As she carefully placed the hot pan on top of the stove, she heard the jingling of orbs behind her signaling the entrance of one or more of her sons.

Piper turned, ready to chew them out for using magic unnecessarily, but Wyatt spoke first, cutting her off.

"Is it now?"

He wasn't speaking to Piper; his attention was on Chris. Piper watched, confused, as Chris glanced at the clock on the wall with a tight expression and nodded. Before she could even ask what was up, the air in front of her shimmered.

"Mom! Get down!" Leo's voice rang through her ears, and trained after more than fifteen years of demon fighting, she ducked without a second thought.

The wall behind her exploded from the energy ball that had been meant for her heart.

With equally fast reflexes, Leo froze the enemy in his tracks. It was only one, for now. There had been the normal small, insignificant demon attacks in the past, but this one certainly wasn't one of them. The three brothers gathered around their mother, intent on protecting their matriarch, that woman that had protected them for so many years.

Demon after demon arrived. Piper knew it was coming. She always knew it was coming... Ever since that day, so many years ago, when she was allowed to see her middle child as a grown man, afraid of losing her. She knew that she would be attacked. Piper rose. It was not the time to crouch on the ground, it was time to fight.

"Boys, duck." The three did so as Piper threw her arms up and watched as two demons exploded in front of her. It was a good thing her range expanded as she grew. Five were vanquished. More were coming.

Chris was terrified. It was his birthday. His FOURTEENTH birthday and he was expected to sit and watch his mother die? That was something he would not accept. It was a good thing his new power came in so quickly. Every time he turned around he had to wave another arm. He was getting tired but anything to help his mother.

Leo Sr. watched the battle in anticipation. While everyone else was busy with demon guts and battle wounds, he watched in fright as he realized that two darklighters arrived in a preemptive strike. Before he could even yell for the boys to look out, the rest of the family arrived. He should have known that they would have some knowledge of the demon attack sooner or later. Between Paige and her enhanced Whitelighter abilities (since she began training with them) and Phoebe's premonitions, not to mention their connections in the magical world, it was no wonder that they would arrive sooner or later.

"BOYS! Orb somewhere else, now! Your aunts and I will take care of this!" Piper screamed. She saw the darklighters aim their crossbows at her sons, and in slow motion, she saw their fingers move their way to the trigger.

"But mom, what if-" Chris began.

"NOW!" Piper screamed as the darklighters pulled the trigger. The boys stood in defense of their mother, not realizing that they were targets as well. They had already defeated every demon other than the darklighters, and had not known of their endangerment to their poisionous arrows. Piper rushed towards her children and pushed them out of the way, taking both hits at once. "Son of a-" Piper yelled, feeling that familiar annoyance towards battle wounds before blowing up both darklighters.

After all of the excitement was over, Leo Sr. rushed to his wife. "Honey-"

"Leo, love, just get these arrows out of me without the pep talk."

Leo Sr. sighed with a slight smile on his face. Damn Valkyrie. "Anything for you. Leo, Wyatt, when I pull the arrows out, be ready to heal." Leo Sr. pulled both of the arrows out of Piper, and Chris watched, defeated, as both of his brothers healed Piper, while he had not acquired the power as of yet. His dad, as if he had telepathy, put his arm around Chris and whispered, "You'll figure it out soon enough, son."

Piper got up and looked at everybody in her usual, 'What are you staring at?!' face. "We have a BIRTHDAY to celebrate. Geez, you people act like I haven't died and come back to life before. Plus, we have a new power to celebrate."

"Powers? You mean your _normal_kids have powers, Piper?" Paige asked in a mocking tone.

"Oh, oh! Who has a new power? Who has a new power?" Phoebe gushed as she rushed over to the boys, her bruised knuckles from punching one of the demon's lights out long forgotten.

"Chris... and it's premonitions." Piper winced secretly and said a silent apology to Chris.

Phoebe's eyes went wide as a large, proud grin spread across her face. "Oooooh!" she squealed, running up to him and pulling him into a suffocating hug. "I knew it! I knew it! You are just too great. Just look at you! Premonitions! Ooooh!" She grabbed at his cheeks, leaving great big red pinch marks behind as she cooed over her second eldest nephew.

Standing behind Chris were Leo and Wyatt who were trying with all their might to hold back their laughter at their brother's plight, but they were failing miserably. A stern look from their mother made them bite their lips harder to suppress their laughter.

"We just need to celebrate that much more, now!" Phoebe declared, as she wrapped one arm around her nephew, attempting to lead him away. "And for the rest of the day, it can just be fun and demon-free!"

At her declaration, the air in front of them shimmered. All of the witches immediately bristled, tensing at the sight, before the shimmering air left somebody quite familiar to their eye in its wake.

Little Leo groaned.

"Hey, Kid. Happy birthday. Whoa, what's with all the glares? I feel like I must be the king of all evil or something. You guys seen a ghost?" Derek Jr., best friend of Wyatt for fourteen years, had arrived, obviously.

Little Leo rolled his eyes at the half-demon and flicked his hands, smiling with satisfaction as the older boy froze in mid-motion.

"Leo, unfreeze Derek, now. Didn't we already have this talk?"

The hazel-eyed boy pouted. "But, Mom! He's annoying," he said matter-of-factly.

Wyatt rolled his eyes as he walked over to his frozen friend. "Leo, unfreeze him now or you'll regret it."

There was a pause and then Leo, wilting under his older brother's glare, flicked his wrists in Derek's direction again, making the half-demon stumble out of his frozen state. The built older boy blinked in confusion before turning his glare on Leo, realizing what the "half-pint" had done.

Leo ignored him, instead deciding to wander over to the stove where the cake still sat undisturbed. "So, Mom, can we have cake now?"

---

The manor was decorated with the splendor of the season. There was a wreath on the door, lights were hung along the roof outside, cards lined the doorways, and the tree was lit and covered in tinsel and breakable bulbs. It was a sight to behold, if Piper did say so herself. Leo and her boys sure did a great job on the house - and she helped. A little.

She stared at the handiwork, admiring it with a smile, when she heard a jingle of orbs behind her. Piper turned, hands on her hips, ready to chew out Little Leo or Chris for orbing in the house when they very well could walk, when she saw her oldest son standing there, a travel bag in his hand, and a grin on his face.

"Hey, Mom. I'm home!" Wyatt announced, dropping his bag and opening his arms wide, waiting for a hug from his mother.

She did not make him wait a moment. She fell into the hug with a broad grin. Her college-bound boy who had been hiding out on the East Coast had finally decided to make an appearance.

"Hey, I know you. It's nice to see my oldest... Now, tell me, is it too late to get you to move back here and stop trying to follow in you father's footsteps?"

Wyatt chuckled as he pulled from his mother. He scratched the back of his neck as he shrugged almost apologetically. "Sorry, Mom. It's a little late for that. But hey! I'm here now! Besides... I bet Chris and Leo have kept you busy enough as it is. Am I right?"

"Damn, shot down by my own son...where does this life go? Yeah, yeah, they keep me busy. You would be so proud of Chris; he won a writing contest. Just found out yesterday. Gives him a scholarship of $2500. Oh, I'm so proud of my sons. Leo is doing better in school, too. Go into the living room, the family's waiting for you."

"Okay, Mom. Guess it's time for me to bombarded, huh?" he asked, smiling through the painful idea of being attacked by his Aunt Phoebe's overly happy greeting.

He was going to have lipstick stains on his cheek for the next week, he just knew it. With a grin plastered on his face, he made to walk through the kitchen into the crowded living room. Thank goodness for the intervention from his Aunt Paige. Sometimes.

"Hold on, just let me check on the spaghetti. You go on ahead and I'll be right behind you."

Piper turned around abruptly, knowing that she didn't want to be run over by Phoebe as she was getting to Wyatt. Phoebe and her... cheesy aunt-ness. Oh well, she always made up for it by being a good confidant when the boys didn't want to talk to Piper or Leo about something. She walked into the kitchen and was glad to know that the spaghetti was finished. She was just waiting on the garlic bread to be done.

After checking on the bread in the oven, Piper decided that it was finally time to head out into the living room, where the whole family was waiting. Her dad was there as well. She always laughed a little, remembering a time when Chris had stated that her dad would be used to orbing.

Looking at him now, she knew that this wasn't that time. Chris just brought him in back from Venice, one of his many, new, free adventures thanks to having grandsons with the ability to orb. He didn't mind the orbing; it was just the queasiness that followed that bothered him.

"Well, there's my oldest daughter. Where have you been hiding?" Victor hugged his daughter affectionately.

"Hi, Dad. I've been making dinner, as always."

"I should have known," he said, smiling proudly down at her.

She smiled back up at him before turning her gaze onto the rest of her family who was packed into the manor's living room, each of them in some sort of conversation. Though they often got together like this - all sixteen of them - it was still some of Piper's happiest times. She watched as each of her family members interacted and moved about with each other.

Except for Prudence.  
**  
**Prue, or Ladybug as they all called her, was pacing back and forth along the far wall as she talked into her cell phone. She looked distressed and as the name "Travis" reached Piper's ears, she grimaced. There was only one reason why the eldest female of the next generation of Halliwells would look that upset while talking to her boyfriend of a year. At that moment, Ladybug slammed the cell phone shut and let her head fall into her hands.

Immediately, Phoebe was at her daughter's side, trying to comfort her. It was obvious that Piper had not been the only one watching. Piper hesitated, wondering if she should head over to comfort her niece as well or not, but then Firefly and Bumblebee were at their sister's side, worrying over her, and the eldest Charmed one knew that the last thing she needed was to be smothered by more family members.  
**  
**Averting her attention, Piper smiled as she saw Julia and Melody nose to nose in some argument or another. Though they were twins, those two hardly ever got along - but that did not diminish their sisterly bond at all. Besides, it was probably just a phase of theirs. Paige had somehow been dragged into their argument, and she was standing between the two of them, attempting to play mediator, but failing miserably.  
**  
**Leo, Henry, and Coop were talking about some sport - most likely baseball considering Leo's level of enthusiasm - and gesturing excitedly and smiling widely. Laughter could be heard from their corner, especially as Victor wandered over to their group, adding in his own two cents. Piper was just glad that her father had finally accepted not only Leo, but Coop into the family as well. She knew that he had not been that thrilled to have another magical being in the family, but after seeing what miracles they could perform - namely his grandchildren - he had finally accepted them both with open arms.

Speaking of the men, the next generation of males were strewn across the couch and coffee table (Piper frowned at the fact that Wyatt and Junior were sitting on the coffee table - didn't they know that the table wasn't meant for _sitting_?). Wyatt was in the middle of telling some story from college while the other three boys listened, laughing and snickering at the appropriate times. At least, Chris and Junior were.

Little Leo seemed distracted by something. His eyebrows were furrowed together and his eyes were darting around the room as though looking for something, but the lost look on his face seemed to tell that he did not even know what for.

Piper watched her youngest intently, knowing that something was going on. Whether it was some normal, teenage boy problem or some magical one, she did not have the faintest idea. By the looks of it, though, it must have been intense. The lost look on his face slowly turned from frustration, to anger, to sadness, to excitement, all in a five second interval. As Piper thought back, she knew she had seen this face somewhere before.

Then she it hit her; it was the same look Prue and Phoebe had as empaths. Her eyes widened. This was not going to be good, she realized, as Little Leo slowly got up without the faintest idea of what he was doing.

"EVERYONE, SHUT UP!"

Stunned silence immediately followed. Little Leo's widened hazel eyes darted across the room, his expression just as shocked as the rest of the room. He stood there for a moment, not saying a word, with all eyes on him, before he grimaced and grabbed his head. Then, without another glance, he sprinted up the stairs, taking them two at a time.  
**  
**Wyatt jumped to his feet, ready to race after his little brother, but Piper was at his side in a flash, putting a calming hand on her oldest son's shoulder. The overprotective nature that Wyatt held over his brothers always made her smile, but she knew that right now Leo did not need the support of a brother - he needed the reassurance of somebody who knew exactly how he was feeling right then. And if she was right, there was only one person with enough experience to be able to offer that sort of reassurance.

"Phoebe, can you...?"

Phoebe looked confused for a moment, her arm still around Ladybug's shoulders even though Ladybug no longer looked upset but more so just baffled at what had just transpired. Then it clicked and her eyes widened as a broad grin spread across her face. She let out a small squeal before bringing her hands together in front of her mouth to try to hide some of her giddiness.  
**  
**"I'll just..." She gestured wildly toward the stairs as she practically skipped across the room.

Piper rolled her eyes.

Paige muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like "Mental".

Big Leo finally shook off his shock enough to ask, "Somebody want to explain what's going on...?"  
**  
**Phoebe poked her head back out over the banister at the top of the stairs and explained in a breathy but loud whisper, "Another one of my nephew's has one of my powers!" Then, with another wide grin, she disappeared around the corner.

"_That_ is what's going on," Piper agreed, shaking her head at her sister's craziness.

She wasn't worried about how Phoebe was going to approach Little Leo - she wasn't the nation's top advice columnist for nothing after all - Piper was just sometimes blown away by her little sister's hyperactivity when it came to her nieces and nephews.

"Wait... new power?" Wyatt asked. "Would that be... empathy?"  
**  
**"Yes," Piper answered, distractedly. "That's what I think anyway- Paige, what are you doing?"  
**  
**Paige had moved from her spot by her daughters to digging around in the drawers in the desks that lined the entrance hall walls. She had a determined look on her face, and from the way that she was pushing everything to the side, she was obviously looking for something.

"Well, do you remember those magical baby monitors that I installed after the Ultimate Battle? We never took them down," Paige explained as she continued to search through the drawers.

"So...?" Piper prodded, not seeing the point.  
**  
**"_So_... aha!" She produced a box of crystals and a flat board and dumped them out onto the coffee table. "We're going to listen to what Phoebe and Leo are talking about."  
**  
**"Paige!" Piper scolded, but not nearly as harshly as she should have as Paige saw through her instantly. Piper was curious, too. It was obvious.

"Shh!" Paige hushed her older sister as she placed one of the crystals down onto the flat board. The entire family was gathered around by now, all of them just as curious as the rest. The crystal glowed yellow and then... nothing. "That must be to Chris's room," she said thoughtfully.

"My room?" Chris repeated, staring at his aunt.  
**  
**"Do you have these hooked up _all_ around the house?" Wyatt asked, not looking at all pleased with this new information.

"Yup! All around the house," Aunt Paige said, glowing with pride at her creation as she shifted through the crystals trying to find the right one. "But they were mainly set up for Chris and Wyatt's rooms."**  
**  
The color drained from Wyatt's face. "You know, Mom... those noises that you heard from my room when I used to live here... demon fighting, I swear! That's all it was! Just me vanquishing demons! I never did anything else in there, honest to God!"  
**  
**A single eyebrow rose on Piper's face as she turned to give her oldest son a look. "Wyatt... we shut those monitors off when you were ten, but what were you saying about loud noises?"  
**  
**Just as quickly as the color left Wyatt's face, it returned full-force, causing him to go tomato red. He moaned, burying his face into his hands, and muttered, "I should have just stayed at school."  
**  
**Chris was biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.  
**  
**Piper opened her mouth, ready to pursue the subject, but Paige suddenly hissed at them to be quiet, and then voices began to float from the crystals throughout the entire room.  
**  
**"Aunt Phoebe, will you just leave me alone? I have a headache..."

Leo's voice was the first heard, sounding angered and saddened at the same time, obviously disturbed by his new power. Piper didn't know how to react. She could already tell that this power would be the worst of them all, the hardest to deal with. The worst feeling for her was knowing that this wasn't anything she could help him with, not a cross for her to bear.

"That must be some headache," Phoebe said, lightly.

There was a pause. And then a sigh.

"How bad is it?"

"Better now... but it felt like my head was going to split open a few minutes ago."

"Boy, do I know how that feels!" said Phoebe, and Piper could just imagine her little sister wearing that 'is sucks, doesn't it?' smile on her face. "...I'm not helping much am I?" She sighed. "Leo, I know it sucks right now... and, I'll admit, your brothers will probably end up more than just a little peeved with you for reading them unconsciously one too many times before you learn to control it... but it does it better. And hey! At least you'll have someone around to help you learn to control it!"

There was another pause, this one lasting a little while longer than the last.

"Aunt Phoebe... I don't want this."

The tiniest hint of a quiver could be heard in Leo's voice, and it made her heart break.

**---**

Piper was no fool. She knew that stupid, goofy grin on her middle child's face meant there was a girl in his life. She also knew that this wasn't just any girl in the eyes of Chris. It was Amanda Christoph. A name her parents had changed when they had the chance to seem more "refined." And Amanda took full advantage of that attitude.

Piper knew the family well. They went to the restaurant often and threw big bills around as tips. They also tended to order things and send them back to her as often as they could, insisting that her _Coq au Vin_ wasn't exactly the way they made it in France. The parents also met in P3, and Piper knew they were made for each other.

Amanda was the oldest in her family. She was the head cheerleader, the one that every guy liked. Why she was going out with Piper's nerd, she had no idea. Not to put down Chris, but girl's like Amanda Christoph didn't exactly go out with intelligent guys like Chris, no matter what kind of girls he was supposed to have dated in the future.

Piper was worried.

She knew that girls like this tended to like Wyatt, and she knew what kind of things those girls did in high school. Not that Piper was bitter about her own high school experience - she wasn't - but the last thing she wanted was for her middle son to be subject to a high school heartbreak.

Chris walked out of his room, smiling as per usual. This time he was wearing a sports coat and slacks, obviously dressed to impress.

"Oh, the sports coat is out," Piper teased.

Chris simply rolled his eyes. "Hey, Mom, can I get a table for two at your restaurant?"

Piper's eyebrows rose considerably. Wasn't it tradition nowadays to go see a movie on the first date?

"Sure, but um... isn't that a little fancy for a first date?"

"Yeah, but Amanda isn't just a first date to me. I want it to be fancy for her. Besides, don't you think she's a little different?"

"I guess." Piper got up and fixed his popped collar. What was it with popped collars these days? "Well, would you like me to prepare something special, then?"

"Well, now that you mention it, could you prepare _not _being there?"

"Chris, Honey, I own the restaurant. I can't just not be there."

"Yes you can. There are other chefs, and you have managers to manage the place. Just try not being there, please?"

"Chris, I can't promise that. But I will try to stay away from you and your date, deal?"

Chris sighed. "Deal, I guess." Chris looked at his watch obviously disappointed in the answer that Piper had given him. "Look, it's time for me to pick her up. I guess I'm gonna go."

"Alright, have a good-"

Before Piper could finish her sentence, Leo Jr. went whizzing by in his black leather jacket and typical eye liner. For some reason, he was no longer her baby, but her typical bad boy teenager. Not the angelic boy that she was hoping for.

"Leo, where are you going?"

"Out."

"You're grounded. I caught you smoking, remember?"

Leo kept walking through Piper's words.

"Leo, where are you going? I'm warning you-"

Before Piper could finish talking, Leo orbed out.

"LEO VICTOR HALLIWELL!"

"Mom, give him a break."

"Oh, Chris, I'm sorry. I just – I don't know how to deal with him lately."

"I know." He paused. "Mom, do you need me to stay?"

"No, no, go on your date. I'll try to stay out of your way, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Just remember not to do any magic."

"I know, I know. You tell me this every time I go out with people. I can handle it. Anyway, Mom, I gotta go."

"Okay. Be good."

With that, Chris left to pick his date up, and Piper was left to an empty house. It just wasn't one of those things that she was used to. Living in a house with three boys and a husband, not to mention her two sisters and their families who tended to visit quite often, made a moment of piece and quiet quite rare to find. It was almost unnerving.

Before she forgot, Piper picked up the phone and called into work.

"Hey, Mike? I have couple things I need you to do. One, will you prepare a table for Chris and his date? He should be there shortly. Yeah, I know. It is good. Do I want anything special for the table? Well, I don't know. Just whatever you can come up with. Wha-? _No wine_! Oh – you're just joking… Hm. Funny. Well, anyway, then could you call one of the other chefs and have him come in? That would be great, thanks." Piper hung up.

Leo Sr. was stuck at Magic School for the rest of the night, taking care of the end-of-term progress reports, so Piper was alone for the rest of the night. She thought about calling her sisters, but then she remembered that Paige was babysitting Phoebe's kids while Phoebe was having her special night out with Coop.

"Maybe I'll go over there later," Piper thought aloud.

For now, she was too worried about Leo to think about anything else. What had been wrong with him lately? She thanked God for Chris' attitude and patience everyday, but he would only be at home for a little while longer, and then it was only the two Leos and Piper. She just didn't know how to handle him and Leo Sr. was at as much of a loss lately as well. Ever since that new power came... Piper's heart tore just thinking about it.

Absently, she put on a kettle of water onto the stove as she pondered over her youngest child. She tried to tell herself that it was just a phase, but even if that was true, she had no idea how to deal with it. Neither Chris nor Wyatt had gone through the "rebellious" stage during their teenage years, so this was relatively new territory for her.

Wyatt had the reputation of having been the Perfect Child. He had not actually been perfect, but the reputation had stuck to him. He was the blond haired, blue-eyed, hockey-playing, Prom King that kids at his high school had envied and loved. He was the kid that either people hated because they were jealous or did not hate at all.

His grades only dropped to failing once in his high school career (it was History, and he was going to be a doctor anyway, so who cared?), and besides the fact that he was messier than any other person Piper knew - she could only count four times during his teenage years that she had actually seen the floor of his bedroom - he could also be seen as the perfect son. Almost.

It was not as though he never lied to her or did anything that was considered "inappropriate" for his age, because she was quite positive that he did. It was the fact that he always did everything with a sense of maturity that she never worried about where any of his stunts might lead him. She never worried that he would end up digging himself into a whole that he could not climb back out of. She did not even worry for him when it came to demons.

Then there was Chris. Sometimes, she worried too much about him even though he was just as self-serving, if not more-so, than Wyatt. He had always been her little walking encyclopedia. When he had been seven years old, a demon had attacked and gotten away before he could be vanquished. Piper had said something about going to get the Book of Shadows, but there had been no need. Chris had been able to rattle off who the demon had been and what potion was needed in order to vanquish him.

And it was not only in magic that he excelled in, though that was always his personal preference. In school, he was a nerd through and through, earning the title of Valedictorian as of right now, and Piper doubted that would change by graduation day which was only a few weeks away.

At times, though, Piper saw the reason that she worried for Chris so much, especially lately. She would walk into the attic and there would be Chris standing over the Book of Shadows, staring intently at some passage or another. And to Piper, it would not be her son. It would be a man from the future that had saved thousands of lives by sacrificing his own. Everyday, Chris looked more and more like this man, but he was still her son. And sometimes it frightened her that she had to remind herself of that fact.

Leo, however, was a mystery all together. She remembered a time when every wish he would make would be, "I wish I could orb!" just so that he could play Orb and Go Seek with his two big brothers, who he loved more than anything. She remembered him running up to greet his daddy and beg him to tell him what he taught in his class today, because he wanted "to be as good of a witch as Wy and Chris!" She remembered him crying big salty tears over the first time that Wyatt had refused to play with him, because Wyatt was a big boy and Leo was still a little baby. Looking back at these times saddened her; they seemed so far away now.

Everything had changed overnight, it felt like. One day, he had been her little boy, the baby of the family, and admirer of his two brothers. The next day, he was this rebellious teenager who pushed his family away with every fiber of his being. He ignored his parents every chance he got, going against their authority. The fights between Chris and Leo were more often than not started by Leo, who used to be the one that got sad whenever Chris was angry at him. And he would not talk to Wyatt, no matter how much the concerned older brother prodded.

Piper was lost.

The kettle whistled. Sighing to herself, realizing how long she had been lost in thought, she stood and moved the kettle off of the hot burner. Pouring the boiling water into her teacup, she tried to move her thoughts elsewhere, but they kept straying back to her youngest son. She had the strangest feeling that something was wrong.

But he would call for Chris or Wyatt if something was wrong, and she trusted her sons to watch out for each other. At least, that's what she kept telling herself as the clear water slowly turned into a calming copper color of tea. Adding sugar and lemon, she took the relaxing drink back to the couch in the living room. Perhaps she would get a little reading done before going over to Paige's to spend time with her nieces and nephew...

The doorbell rang.

That sinking feeling suddenly came rushing back. Piper started to set her tea cup down, but she missed the table and the cup started to fall to the ground.

"Oh!"

Piper's hands went up quickly and, instead of the result that she had hoped for, the cup exploded, spraying everything in the vicinity – herself included – with scolding hot tea.

"Damnit!" she hissed as she quickly put an apron on. "This better be good." Piper muttered, walking briskly to the door to open it only to be surprised by the face of a son of an old friend. "Oh, Michael, what are you doing here?"

The tall black man, son of old friend Darryl Morris, standing in front of her did not have the face of somebody dropping by for a friendly visit. Instead, his thick dark colored eyebrows were knitted together in concern, making his muscular frame seem to sag in uncertainty in front of her. He had his arms crossed across his chest, hiding his police badge from sight, though his uniform was easy to make out. His lips were pressed together in a thin line, so thin that they almost disappeared into his goatee that was settled around his mouth.

In a way, he reminded Piper of Henry just before the man had to go write some kid up for another offense of some kind. It was as though he was the parent and disappointed in the child even though that was not the case.

Michael stood there for a second, not saying anything, and then a sigh worked past his lips.

"Mrs Halliwell..." he began, uncertainly.

"Please, Michael, just call me Piper." Piper shifted her weight, trying not to fidget as the officer in front of her tried to find the words.

"We found your son," he finally worked out.

"Really? And where exactly did you find him?" Piper tried to bite back a scream of frustration, knowing that good news was not following that statement.

"We found him with this," Michael held up a bottle of Jack Daniel's finest, "on his way out of the liquor store on Main."

"I see," she said, slowly. "Where, exactly, is Leo?" She did not even have to ask which son it was that had been found. She knew. And Piper was pissed.

"Hold on." Michael went back to the squad car and talked to his partner, some 40-year-old up for a promotion.

First smoking, then he decided to leave the house without her permission and now theft and drinking? New power or not, this was not the son she raised, and she was going to have a talk with him. But not without the rest of her boys.

Leo came sulking up in handcuffs. Part of Piper's heart went out she saw him cuffed, but she had to stay hard. She couldn't be sympathetic, because then he would just walk all over her.

Michael uncuffed him. Piper gave Leo one hard look and he went inside.

"Thanks, Michael. I hope this doesn't happen again."

"Look, Mrs- Piper. I'll try my best to cover this up, okay? I know he's a good kid, and it's the least I could for all you've done for my family and all..."

"Thank you, Michael."

Piper closed the door. When she turned around, she saw Leo slowly and quietly making his way up the stairs, obviously hoping to avoid any confrontation that his mother had planned. Gritting her teeth slightly with hands on hips, she cleared her throat loudly as a subtle sort of warning. Leo paused on the sixth step. He stood there for a second before turning at a sickeningly slow pace before finally looking at her. The look on his face, the half-defeated, half-"I don't give a rat's ass what you think" look that was spelled out across his expression, almost broke her resolve. Almost.

"Look, Mom," he said suddenly, before she could even open her mouth, "I know what you're going to say, so don't even bother, alright? Because... I don't care."

"Leo, we need to have a long talk. And I know you don't want to hear it. At least not from me, so would you be willing to hear it from someone else?"

"Mom, I know you're pissed. And I know you think I'm going to want to hear it from my father or my 'loving' brothers, but I don't. So, I'm going up to my room to, I don't know, shoot myself."

And with that, Leo stomped upstairs.

"Wyatt!" Piper yelled at the sky. It was time to bring them all home. With a few blue sprinkles of bright light, her eldest appeared dressed for a party... Piper was glad to know they spent so much money on a _party _school.

"It's not a party school, before you say anything," he said, cutting her off. Since when could _all_ of her sons read minds? "Now, what's so urgent?"

"Leo... your brother… he was caught…" She was so angry that she could not even get the words out correctly. They kept stumbling in her mouth, almost as though she did not want to say them. When had things gone so wrong?

"What did he do this time?"

"Wyatt, will just go get your father, please? We'll talk about it when everyone is home."

And with more lights, he was gone. It was time to call Chris. Who was on a date. Who was going to be pissed when she called him.

"Chris!" There was no immediate response. In fact, there was no response.

"Chris!" He jingled back. What the hell was she supposed to do with jingles?

"Christopher!" More jingles.

"Christopher Perry Halliwell, get your ass back home!" Jingles galore. Oh, the joys of raising whitelighters.

Piper grabbed the house phone, nearly sending the handset crashing into the floor, and called him. What was happening when mortal technology was more prized than their own powers?

She was forced to leave a message on his answering machine. "Christopher, it is time to come home. I am sorry to disrupt your date, but things aren't going so well here, and we need to talk. The whole family. Chris? I just-I don't know what to do here. Come home, _now_."

Piper waited a minute or two and could wait no longer. She thought about just driving to the restaurant, but she knew that would only piss him off. "CHRISTOPHER!"

Without any warning, he was there. There was a moment of confused silence. Where were the orbs? The blue lights? The godforsaken jingle?

"Mom?" He looked around the manor, confusion written on his face.

"Chris, how did you get here? There were no orbs."

"Well... I think I maybe... astral projected?"

"What?!" Why was everything happening at once? "Go back, go back!"

"What did I do?!""Go back! Then come home... the NORMAL way!" she cried, thinking that the last thing she needed was for people to think her son was a narcoleptic.

"Since when is driving _normal_ in this family?" he muttered.

Then he disappeared just as quickly and quietly as he had appeared. Piper let out a sigh as her head fell into her hands. She always knew that raising magical children would be a challenge, but sometimes she just felt so lost and unsure of how to react to things. Sometimes, she felt like the worst mother in the world, though she knew she was doing the best that she could. There was only so much a woman could do without a "How To" manual to help them along.

_I could really use that "How To" manual right about now_, she thought painfully as the sound of orbing reached her ears. Her husband and eldest son were home. Her middle child was on the way. And her youngest was up in his room going through something that Piper would probably never be able to understand.

She could only hope that she tackled each thing that was thrown her way correctly. Just like Grams did, and just like every witch before her.


	2. Episode One

**Disclaimer:** We do not own Charmed in any way, shape, or fashion. That's the end of it.

**Summary:** Chris works to get his college degree while running P3 with the help of his mother, Piper, who has opened her dream restaurant at last. Wyatt studies to get his graduate degree in Medicine, fresh from moving home from the East Coast where he has been for the past four years, before moving in with Chris in their own little bachelor pad. And Leo, fresh out of high school, with no real direction in life, leaves the safety of the manor and finds himself on his brothers' doorstep looking for a place to stay. All the while, something stirs in the underworld as years of peace finally come crashing down on them when they least expect it.

**Author's Notes:** Just a reminder: There are two people writing this fanfiction. Once again, this Kaye writing to you, and once again, it's past midnight so O Tuachair is already blissfully asleep while I stayed up to edit this chapter. Lucky her.

In case you were curious, there is a 'trailer' of the next episode along with an episode list on our profile page. Also, a reminder, the main cast list is there as well. The guest stars, however, will be mentioned in every 'episode' that they show up in.

Constructive criticism is welcome.

Enjoy!

* * *

**The Phoenix Trials**

**Chapter One: Pilot – Charmed Revamped**

GUEST STARS:

STEWART, Boo Boo… Mark Chang  
BAKKE, Brenda… Soul Collector  
CHANNING, Stockard… Alvira Sanders

In the darkly lit staircase of the correctional facility that led from the main chamber to the dormitories sat a lone Asian boy. His hair was hanging down into his eyes, practically begging for a haircut, and he was dressed in the typical blues that were mandatory in the facility. As he sat there, several other boys dressed similarly ran past, heading toward the dorm rooms. They were quickly followed by a man decked out in a military uniform.

"Alright, Davies, Brown! In your rooms, _now_. It's time for lights out!" barked the officer.

He walked right past the boy, not paying him any mind, to the hallway light switch and stood guard as though waiting for something. A moment later, a thick, static-filled voice came on over the intercom.

"Lights out! Everybody in your rooms!"

The officer flicked off the hallway lights and what little light was left in the hallway, vanished, leaving only the slight sliver of the moon to light the way. The Asian boy sighed and stood, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he did so.

"This sucks," he muttered, before making his way down the hallway and entering the last room.

Inside was a flimsy bunk-bed for two people and a file cabinet. Otherwise it was bare and silent save for the obvious sounds of snoring coming from one of the sleeping occupants. The boy looked at the top bunk only to find it already occupied, the bottom bunk the same. The kid sighed again, this time a little disappointed.

From the dark corners of the small cell-like room, a figure stood watching, undetected and unseen. She stared at the boy, examining him for a moment, before stepping out of the darkest shadows. The movement startled the boy, and he spun around, eyes wide as he stared at her. She was much taller than his twelve-year-old frame and pale, too, with a lot of curly, fiery red hair.

"I have waited quite a long time to gain my revenge," the woman hissed without a greeting.

The boy slowly backed up until his back was against the wall as the woman continued to approach him with a predatory step.

"And now... it's time!"

"W-who are you?" the boy managed to stutter out.

The woman simply smiled a cruel, unforgiving grin.

"Your collector."

On the floor below, approximately ten minutes later, was the same officer that had turned out the lights shuffling through papers on his desk. There was a timid knock at the door and he looked up to see a much younger female officer standing there. She smiled awkwardly at him, fiddling with the folder in her hand.

"What is it, Officer Owens?" asked the superior.

"Um, Officer Marshall... I finished my report on Kevin Baxter."

He nodded, the wrinkles on his face seeming more prominent in the single lamplight that was illuminating his desk. "Good, good. Just put it on my desk, I'll get to it soon enough."

"Yes, sir," said the woman before dropping the folder on the desk and walking out.

Left alone to the silence once more, Officer Marshall turned back to the paperwork on his desk. He was so intent on determining one of his students' progress, that he never saw the knife coming.

He was dead before he could scream.

Opening Credits Roll  
Theme Song: "Fallen Angels" by Aerosmith

- - -

Song: "Broken" by Seether (featuring Amy Lee) 

The city of San Francisco was dark and gloomy as the night continued on. The cars on the Golden Gate Bridge were lined up, horns blazing with the hurry that everyone has to get home. It was not the best time to be out. A montage of the city leads up to a close up on an apartment.

Chris and Wyatt sat in their apartment's living room, both without a date. Chris' hair was wet from a fresh shower, and Wyatt was wearing the robes of a medical student, having just arrived home. Their three-bedroom apartment was shared by just the two of them since their last roommate, Jessie, left. He had moved on to try writing in the professional world.

No less than two months ago, Chris had owned the apartment with Jessie and Robert, two students from his college that he had befriended. Rob went on to the business world, just in time for Wyatt to come back.

Since Chris had left the house, his mother gave him P3 to keep an eye on, as she was so busy having a restaurant to take care of. It took him a while to get a hang of taking care of it by himself, but now that he understood it, he was able to manage it and his college courses. After arriving at the college 3 years ago, he found a major that both inspired him and required use of his computer knowledge. He had been filming family events every once in awhile, and decided to take a course in Filmmaking/Animation. Now that he owned the club, he took full advantage of the space when he could for assignments.

"You know what sucks?" Wyatt said suddenly, as he removed his lab coat.

"What sucks?" Chris asked, drying his hair with the towel in his hand.

"The fact that I've been in San Francisco for about six weeks now... and I haven't had a date yet." He was practically whining.

Living on the east coast for four years had left Wyatt with more than just a college degree. Having been practically smothered in his great "destiny" his entire life - it was not his family doing the smothering, it was actually the demons that seemed quite thrilled to remind the Twice-Blessed child every second they got of who he was "meant to be" - the moment the freshly-turned eighteen-year-old got the chance, he had run off to the east coast. There, he found the independence and freedom that he had been searching for, and it had definitely worked in his favor.

It was not as though Wyatt had ever really been 'uptight' or 'stressed' by his great destiny, but the weight on his shoulders had made the Twice-Blessed grow up a little quicker than he would have liked. He had often told his mother he had not gone to a party school... but the truth was that he had definitely joined a party fraternity. The majority was right: college was the best years of his life ever. Now he was only two years away from getting his MD, and quite content to be back at home after loosening his collar a bit.

"I told you, Man: you're undateable. Girls hate that 'perfect' thing. Which is why I get dates, and you don't." Chris answered with a smug smile.

Wyatt simply smiled back. "Oh... go screw yourself, little brother."

He then conjured a throw pillow in his hand and chunked it at his brother's head. Chris lazily waved his hand, sending it sailing harmlessly into the wall.

"Personal gain," Chris admonished.

Wyatt narrowed his eyes, ready to say a not-so nice comment to his straight-edge brother, but he was cut off by a hard pounding on the door. Somebody was knocking to come in, and from the insistent pounding, they were being rather impatient about it as well. Wyatt and Chris shared a look before the younger of the two approached the door, his stance tense and ready. They could never be sure of anything nowadays. Not that most demons knocked, but they never knew.

However, there was no demon on the other side of the door, Chris found out as he opened it. It was not even a nosy neighbor. Instead, it was somebody completely unexpected and - in Chris's opinion - uninvited.

"What the hell are you doing here?" On the other side of that door stood the youngest of the Halliwell brothers, soaking wet. What he was doing there, Chris and Wyatt had no idea, and frankly, Chris could care less.

"Enjoying the rain. What does it look like?" said the soaking teenager.

His hair was plastered to his forehead and neck, and every inch of him appeared to have been soaked in water a few times over. His lips were unnaturally dark from the rain water, and his clothes clung to his body like a second skin. He had a satchel over his shoulder that was just as soaked as the rest of him, and there was a puddle of water gathering beneath his feet. The landlady was going to love that.

"Well, you're just going to have to continue enjoying it." Chris started to close the door until Leo stopped him.

"Wait- can't I at least come in?"

Wyatt had moved from his spot by the couch to get a better look at his youngest brother, a frown appearing on his lips at what he saw.

"Why? Why should I let you come in?"

"Oh, I don't know... because I'm your brother?" said Leo, his hand still firmly pressed against the door to keep Chris from closing it.

Chris muttered under his breath. "Some brother."

Leo gritted his teeth and lowered his head, obviously lost for words for a second, before he caught sight of Wyatt standing inside the apartment. He looked toward his eldest brother with pleading eyes. "Wyatt..."

Wyatt did not say anything for a second, knowing that it was not his place to be making decisions in Chris's apartment, but the look on Leo's face made him crumble. He let a small sigh fall past his lips. "Chris, let him in."

Chris sighed out of frustration. He thought for a moment about telekinetically slamming the door, but he knew better than to go one against two. Especially since Leo could orb.

"Fine. But don't touch anything. I don't want to find out that it's been stolen."

Chris reluctantly let the door open, and Leo let himself in.

Wincing at Chris's comment, Wyatt watched as his two younger brothers moved from the doorway and further into the room. Leo did not even seem bothered by what was said, however, and simply walked right in, dropping his wet bag by the door as he entered. He was leaving a trail of mud and water, and Wyatt could just see Chris's semi-OCD side just cringing at the sight. Wyatt held out his hand, and in a swirl of blue orbs, a towel appeared in his hand.

"Here," he said, tossing the towel at Leo's head.

The younger boy's reflexes were obviously just as they always were, as the towel hit him right in the face. Wyatt held back a laugh, the tension in the room making it seem wrong somehow.

"Thanks," Leo muttered, pulling the towel from his face and using it to try to dry some of his hair.

"You can borrow some of my clothes if you want," Wyatt added, absently pointing toward his room.

Leo glanced toward Chris, obviously trying to decide if he should attempt just sitting on the furniture in his wet clothes or take Wyatt up on his offer, even though the other boy was taller and slightly more muscular than him. Realizing that the green-eyed boy's glare had not let up since he walked through the door, the youngest nodded and disappeared into Wyatt's room, closing the door behind him.

Wyatt let out a breath he had known that he had been holding. "You know...," he said to Chris, "you could try to act like you don't hate him."

"Well, he could have tried not being an ass for the past four years too, but he didn't, so I won't."

Wyatt let his shoulders slump in a semi-defeat at those words. Four years. That was the exact amount of time that he had been off playing 'doctor' on the east coast. He knew that Leo's estranged behavior began a little while after he left, and, sometimes, when he was looking for someone to blame, himself always seemed like a good option. He knew in his head that it really was not his fault, but he sometimes wondered if he had stayed in California if things would have fallen apart so quickly.

A loud, shrill ringing filled the apartment.

Glancing toward Chris, Wyatt made his way over to the video phone. The screen blinked the name 'MOM' back up at him. Wyatt looked toward his bedroom door and bit his lip. After another second of ringing and debating, he finally picked up the phone and his mother's face appeared on the screen, her expression one of uncertainty and worry. Just as Wyatt had thought; this had to be about Leo.

"Hi, Mom," he said, trying to sound cheery but failing miserably. He had never been a good liar.

"Um, Wyatt, I know this probably isn't a good time, but, is Leo there?" In Piper's state, she didn't seem to notice Wyatt's tone of voice.

"Yeah! Yeah, he's here. He's fine. He's good. We're all good. Everything's good. Don't worry about a thing, Mom!"

Piper looked exhausted, but her worry had diminished a little bit. She looked confused and was trying to figure out a way to say what she wanted to next. She was back in her witch mode, although it was combined with motherhood. She was trying to think of a battle a plan, a way to get to her youngest son, but the look on her face notified Wyatt that she had no idea how.

"Wyatt, um, could I-"

"Talk to him? I don't know if he wants to, Mom."

"Well, of course he doesn't. Is he okay?" Piper was obviously ready to give up.

It surprised Wyatt, because defeat wasn't a look he saw on his mom, ever. "Yeah. What happened with him this time?"

"We both went too far, and that's about all I can say. It's all really hazy at this point. Just-I love you guys. Tell your brothers that. I'll wait 'til he's cooled off and then we'll talk about him coming home." With that said, Piper turned the video phone off.

Wyatt stared at the blank screen for a moment, his mind whirling with the possibilities, when he heard a door click open. He sat the handset down and turned to his youngest brother. Chris had still not moved from his spot on the other side of the room, but both Wyatt and Leo knew that he was watching the youngest like a hawk. At least he was not saying anything.

"Mom just called," Wyatt told him.

Leo rolled his eyes.

When it was clear that he was not going to say anything, Wyatt leaned against the back of the sofa and continued, "So, what really happened?"

The hazel-eyed boy kept his eyes downcast. "We fought."

"Fought?"

"Argued."

_"Leo, I don't know what to do with you anymore!"_

_"I have an idea! How about nothing?"_

"About?"

"Does it matter?"

_"Leo! It's time for you to own up to your own issues. Come down here and talk to me!" _

_"I wish you had died when you were supposed to."_

_"Leo! Don't you ever speak to your mother like that again, or -" _

"Leo..."

"Look. We argued. I left. The end. That's it."

"And you came here?"

_"Or what? You'll punish me? Ha." _

_"Leo-"_

_"Dad, I'm really not in the mood to hear it, because I already know what you're going to say. And you know what? I'm leaving."_

"And I came here. And you know what? I'm starting to wonder why. It's obvious I'm not welcome."

"Leo, stop. It's not that. I just want to know what happened. Mom sounded really upset."

_"Leo, don't you dare orb out that door! Not now, not in the middle of a fight." _

_"Fine, I'll walk."_

_"Leo, you may know what I'm feeling, but I don't know anything about you! Could you please stay and sit down so we can talk about this?! Leo-!" _

"Good for her. Now, if you're not going to kick me out, then I'm going to go to sleep. Third room still empty?"

"Yeah..."

"Good. G'night."

Wyatt let out a sigh and turned to look at Chris, who had been oddly quiet during that entire exchange.

Chris got up and reluctantly got up to follow Leo after Wyatt's 'look'. It was that look that his mother always used to give him when it was time for him to be the 'bigger man'. He hated that look. Leo was almost to the door of the third bedroom before Chris finally decided to say something.

"Leo..." Chris sighed and smoothed his back.

"Or maybe I spoke too soon on the throwing out part," the black-haired boy muttered to himself.

He rested his hand against the door frame of the empty bedroom and contemplated just stepping inside and ignoring his brother, but years of living with the stubborn Halliwell told him that it would all be useless. So, instead, he simply stood there and waited to hear what Chris had to say.

"I'm sorry about the stealing comment, but Leo, as long as you live under my roof, none of that crap you pull at home. I mean it."

"Don't worry. I don't plan on staying here that long anyway," Leo said, turning just enough to give Chris a look before disappearing into the room and closing the door behind him.

"Good." Chris turned around and headed to his bedroom, hands in his pockets in his usual pout-filled way.

Wyatt watched the confrontation between his two brothers, and could do nothing but hope for a better morning even though he knew it wouldn't come. He sighed. "Well... that could have been worse."

- - -

The next morning, Wyatt did not get the chance to see Chris or Leo. His class started at seven o'clock sharp, and both younger boys were still asleep when he was heading out the door. Things were not so easy for the graduate student, however, as he found his thoughts drifting to his brothers in the middle of Anatomy. The professor called him out on it, which had him lowering his head in embarrassment as the entire class glanced toward him. It was just like high school all over again.

By the time the three hour class was over, Wyatt was glad to be out of there. He went with a few classmates to grab some lunch before heading home. The apartment was oddly quiet when he returned. As he went to grab a soda, he found the reason why in the form of a sticky note on the fridge:

_Wy, _

_Went to check on things at the club. Leo left this morning, so I locked the door. Make sure he's not waiting outside or Alvira will be mad. And make sure he didn't orb in... We're not at home anymore and we never know who (or what) will see us._

_-Chris_

Crumpling the note in his fist as he pulled it from the fridge, Wyatt sighed. He hoped that his youngest brother wasn't up to anything, but most likely, he was.

_At least Chris is ok with the possibility of him coming back? _Wyatt thought, wryly.

The blond pulled the soda from the fridge and popped the top off. He was just about to take a drink from the beverage when a sudden - almost silent - sound reached his ears. He froze. Silently, he conjured an athame in his hand and let his eyes scan the kitchen for the source of shimmering. A milisecond later, the wavering of the air caught Wyatt's attention, and he threw the weapon with expert precision.

It was only the half-demon's expert reflexes that saved him.

"Jesus, Wyatt! What!? Are you trying to kill me!?"

"DJ!" Wyatt cried, eyes wide as he helped his best friend off the ground, where he had thrown himself in his attempt to escape the deadly athame. "What the hell, Man? We _have_ a door, and for good reason! I could have killed you!"

"Touchy, touchy. What, poor little Wyatt didn't get any last night?" Derek prodded jokingly.

Derek was about 6'1", 180 pounds, give or take a few, and was a demon – half demon, to be exact. Wyatt's mother liked to tell the story like a fairy tale of how little Wyatt met his best friend. They were magical beings, and that's about where they started to get along, although shimmering and orbing didn't usually go together. He had a square jaw that was usually locked in business mode, no matter how much he joked. He was always looking to make sure that everyone else was okay before he could relax.

He was short compared to Wyatt and Leo Jr., something that Leo never failed to point out. The demon and his youngest brother loved to torture each other, literally. There were a few games that Piper actually had to ban from the house. Chris and Derek were good friends as well. Derek was, to be blunt, the horny, joking, good demon. There was no other way to describe him. Well... that, and he was a cop.

"Yeah, well, you just be glad that it was me that almost killed you and not Chris. He would have gone through with it. Ever since that demon attacked while Rob and Jessie still lived here... he's been on a 'No Magic Exposure' parade. No orbing - or shimmering - into the apartment," Wyatt said, shaking his head at the memory.

It was a good thing that Rob was dumber than he looked, because after being thrown across the room and being knocked out cold by a demon that Chris vanquished easily two seconds later, the Haliwell brother simply told him that he slipped on the rug and hit his head. Rob believed him, much to his relief and surprise. That had been Chris's freshman year in college.

Wyatt knew how badly that could have gone if given the chance, so he was glad for the little sympathy that life was showing them. Ever since then, however, Chris had placed strict magic-related rules around his apartment, ones that Wyatt was forced to follow when he moved in. And, along with him, his friends were expected to follow as well.

"A little uptight for him, don't you think? Although... I did always wonder when he would snap. Looks to be soon, eh?" Derek looked to Wyatt for a laugh, but he didn't get one. After looking at the distraught look on the witch's face, Derek knew there was something on his mind. "Hey, man, what's up? You look like you were rejected by a mail-order bride."

Wyatt stared at DJ, not amused. To keep from having to say anything, he took a long drink from his soda as he tried to pull his thoughts together. He thought about telling Derek what was up with Chris and Leo, the words already forming in his mouth as he finally set the can back down, but he chickened out at the last second. Derek was like a fourth brother to the blond, but he knew that DJ and Leo never really got along either. The last thing that Wyatt wanted was for his best friend and younger brother to band together against Little Leo. That would be a step backward away from the result that Wy eventually wanted.

Letting a sigh fall past his lips, he shook his head. "It's nothing," he muttered, grabbing another soda from the fridge and tossing it to Derek who caught it easily. "But what about you? You usually don't shimmer in unannounced. What's up?"

Derek thought about giving Wyatt a hard time, but went against it. Whatever the problem was, Derek had no doubt that he would soon find out.

"Well, I have a problem. There's something going on at work... and I have a feeling it's just up your alley, Scooby Doo."

Wyatt raised a single eyebrow in question. "Really? Like what, Velma?"

"If anyone's a lesbian, it's you dude. But, no, really: There have been a couple of deaths with no culprit whatsoever... and we found the knife. It wasn't an athame, but I scanned the prints. It's freaky, dude. It's an ectoplasmic print. Think you can vanquish a ghost for me?"

"Ectoplasmic print?" Wyatt repeated. "Do you know who it belongs to?"

"His name was Mark Lang. He was a kid that died a couple of years back from 'mysterious circs'. The coroner called it on asphyxiation. I'm sure you understand all that medical crap. So, anyways, something happened at the juvenile hall and the next thing everybody knew was that he was dead. No one was punished further, no one was arrested. That's about it. Anything you can do?"

"No arrests were made? Well, no wonder his spirit is still hanging around. He's got 'unfinished business' that, apparently, has to do with our victims. Is there anything that links all of them?" he asked, his mind running quickly over the information that DJ was throwing at him.

"Well, so far they have all worked at the Juvenile Hall or have been related to someone that worked there. Well, during his time period, of course. Sound good to you, Matlock?"

"The employees that are being attacked were either probably responsible for his death or saw who was and didn't come forward," he said, thinking back on all of the ghost lore that he had been forced to memorize during his sessions at Magic School. He turned back to his friend who was still staring at him with an expectant expression. Wyatt shrugged. "I don't know much about ghosts," he admitted, "but I'm sure Chris does. He knows something about everything."

He paused, thinking for a moment.

"Think you could get us a look at one of those crime scenes?"

"Not only can I get you into one, but I can get you the weapons too. Think Chris is ready for a premonition?"

"Does he ever have a choice?" Wyatt asked with a smirk.

"No. Speaking of Madam Chloe..." Derek turned around as he heard the door start to open.

Sure enough, Chris was walking through the door, looking thoroughly surprised at Derek's presence. And then he looked thoroughly annoyed at Derek's feet on the coffee table and two sodas without coasters.

"Derek... kindly remove your demon-soaked shoes off my coffee table and-"

Chris had started to make the order for the coasters, but opted not to mention it. He knew it would just lead to more jokes, which he definitely didn't need since his day started with Leo, and ended in another bill at P3 and another canceled band for tonight. He had to hire a damn d.j. for the night's show, because Broken Vessel canceled on them. There was a new club in town and they were proving to be some big competition for P3.

"-and did I hear you say Madam Chloe? No chance you were referring to my power of premonition, were you, dickhead?"

"Damn, you're worse than your brother. What, did you both find out you were in love with lesbians?"

"Don't start. What did you need anyway?"

Wyatt stared at Derek for a moment before standing. "Come on," he said, pulling his friend up, "let's look into this ghost problem of yours. I'll ask you about your sudden lesbian obsession later." He walked over to Chris, steering him around so that he was leading his little brother back out the front door. "I'll explain on the way," he promised, seeing his brother's inquisitive look. "And I'm driving."

With that, he orbed the car keys away from Chris and headed down toward the parking lot with his brother and best friend in tow.

- - -

For August, it was a relatively cool afternoon. Leo walked through the San Francisco streets toward the cheap college-kid infested apartments that his brothers lived in. He had been downtown, tracking down some old high school friends, looking for a different place to stay. None of them had been sympathetic, though. It was not as though he had expected them to be. They were all selfish bastards when they went to high school together, and they were selfish bastards now.

Leo knew he also belonged in that category, so he could not really blame them. He was just going to hate it when he had to tell Chris to his face that he needed to stay there another night. He could have gone back to the manor, he supposed, but that was the last thing he wanted to do. The manor was like a chain and collar. The longer he stayed there, the more it choked and strangled him. He needed out. Even if that meant putting up with Chris for a few days.

Wyatt, he could deal with... sometimes. His oldest brother tended to take Chris's side more often than not, but at least he wasn't out to always prove that Leo was a terrible person.

Hands stuffed in pockets, Leo walked up the path the led into the gray-painted apartment complex. He was almost inside the air conditioned hallway when he noticed that Chris's car was gone. Wyatt had been gone when Leo had left, and though the youngest brother did not know his schedule, he assumed that he was probably still out. That meant that there was nobody home except Leo himself, and he didn't have a key. He could just orb... but he knew Chris would chew him out about that too if he found out. And knowing Leo's luck, he would find out.

Not having anywhere else to go or anything else to do, Leo entered the building with a sigh. Hopefully Wyatt would be home soon, and Leo wouldn't have to wait too long.

He was almost to the elevators when a voice caught his attention.

"Young man! Young man, will you please stop for a minute. Who are you?"

Leo looked around the entrance hall, wondering if she was talking to him, before realizing that he was the only one there save for the older woman that was calling out toward him. He looked at the woman, wondering if he should even answer or not. For all he knew, this could be some weird demonic trick (it wouldn't be the first time).

The woman was definitely older, around fifty to sixty years old if he had to guess. She had dark auburn hair that was sprinkled with gray and cascaded down her back down to her waist in a bunch of frizzy curls. She was dressed in some sort of dress that had fabric just falling off of her shorter figure, almost making the dress appear more like a robe. Her face was dabbed with makeup that was probably de-aging her a bit.

During the time that Leo took to study her, she had reached him and was now standing less than two feet away wearing an expectant expression. It took him a moment to realize that he had not answered her.

"None of your business," he finally muttered, turning around to continue on his way.

"It is too my business; I'm the landlady."

The woman grabbed his arm. She didn't look to be much like a fragile old woman, but more like the one that would end up hitting him with her purse if he got too mouthy. Leo knew that he could have easily overcome her, but he was not in the mood to get yelled at by either his brothers or his mother.

"I'll start. I'm Alvira, young man. Now, you are dirty and tracking mud into my establishment, so I think you should have the decency of telling me who you are and who you are visiting."

Leo stared down at the hand gripping his arm and sighed. Great. Just what he needed. To be interrogated by an old woman who was going to scold him for tracking mud in. He remembered when his mother used to lecture him over similar things and knew that the best way to get a woman off your back is just to give them what they want.

"I'm Leo," he finally said. "I'm staying with my brothers, Chris and Wyatt Halliwell. Okay? Can I go now?"

"Ooh, you're Leo. Well, alright, you can go. But both of your brothers just left with some cop."

"Some cop. Great," he muttered.

Leo did not even have to ask to know what cop that was. It had to have been Wyatt's friend Derek, somebody that Leo particularly did not like. He sighed as he realized what this meant. Neither of his brothers were going to be home for quite some time.

"Well, since you're going to be alone for awhile, come and have tea with me," Alvira said to Leo as he stood there absently and contemplated waiting for his brothers or leaving.

Shooting a glance at the older woman, Leo shook his head. He was not the type to share afternoon tea with some random old lady because she was lonely. He was not the type to even drink tea, actually.

"No, thanks," he said tersely, pulling out his wallet to count his money. Perhaps he could go hang somewhere for a few. Alvira eyed the younger Leo opening his wallet. Before he could finish taking his money out, Alvira had grabbed his arm.

"That wasn't a request."

He stared at the shorter woman gripping his arm. For a moment, he considered just shrugging her off and telling her to leave him the hell alone. However, somehow, he didn't think she would like it very much, and if next month's rent ended up twice as high for Chris because his little brother badmouthed the landlady, he didn't think even Wyatt would be able to stop the neurotic Halliwell from causing him some serious damage. He let a long-suffering sigh fall past his lips as he pocketed his wallet once more.

"Fine," he muttered.

He'd entertain the old lady for a bit. What was the worse that could happen?

- - -

"So, as far as you know, the ghost has just been hanging around for this long, and didn't start killing until recently for the hell of it?" Chris asked D.J. as they walked towards the precinct.

The place was at its busiest, as it always was at night. Normally Chris would object to going to such a busy place while on a job, but after Wy's reassurance that a busier place guaranteed that no one would be listening, he felt better. Or at least, he gave in. And they were only there to collect the weapon anyways.

"Well, maybe the little jackass was too busy," D.J. responded, honestly trying to think of a reason.

"With what? Work?"

"I don't know! Aren't you the paranormal expert? Maybe he was waiting for something. You figure it out, super witch."

"Maybe he was waiting for something."

Chris paused in their walking as he tried to remember something that Piper had told him a long time ago. Unfortunately, it just wasn't Chris' day.

"Wait... are you saying that I was right?"

"...Yes."

"Say it again."

"No."

"Say it again."

"No."

"...Bitch."

Wyatt watched the interaction between his brother and best friend and was oddly enough reminded of two monkeys throwing feces at each other. He knew better than to interrupt the two even though they were closing in upon the door. He didn't feel the need to warn them that they were both about to walk into glass doors, either. They went gracefully, although their words were not.

"Damnit!" Chris was never much of a 'swearing' kind of guy.

"Fuck!" Although, Derek certainly was.

"You might want to try opening it next time," said Wyatt with an innocent 'chirpy' grin as he opened his own door and walked through quite easily.

"Smart ass." Derek whined as he walked through the door, rubbing his bruised ego while winking at his favorite coworker. She sneered and turned away as soon as she saw him.

"Well, she knows you quite well." Chris commented. "Now, where's the information?"

"You guys should probably stay in the waiting area while I get the file. There are already way too many people that have questions for me."

"Wait, what?! I thought you said-" But before Chris could lecture Derek on the importance of being undiscovered, Derek had already left.

Wyatt scratched the back of his neck as he watched his friend leave. He knew a bit of what DJ was talking about; his friend was often on the end of a Halliwell-Style-Case, and therefore far too many of them came up 'unsolved'. After so many cases ending up like that, people tended to talk, and unfortunately for them, policemen tended to talk a lot.

He watched as that same policewoman from earlier walked by. She caught sight of him, gave him a glare that could kill, and walked away. He was probably as well liked around here as Derek was and - unfortunately for him - as well known, too.

He saw Chris give him look and he put on his best innocent facade. He shrugged. "Don't ask me!" he said, knowing that his baby brother wouldn't buy it for a second.

"Don't ask me my ass," Chris mumbled under his breath.

His brother certainly knew how to get around, but as there was a vengeful spirit running around, Chris left the subject untouched. He could tell, however, that the glaring was not only coming from the female police officers, which Chris was certainly used to, but from the men as well. Unless his brother was gay, Chris knew that their suspicious eyes had something to do with the many unsolved cases that came with the Halliwell line.

"Got it." D.J. stated as he arrived in front of the guys, waving a file around. "And I have a little treat for you, my little Jean Grey."

Derek held out a couple of Ziplocs full of evidence. Evidence that he was probably not supposed to be showing off.

"What the hell are you doing? Put that up!"

"Okay, okay, geez. What forest went up your ass this morning?"

"Let's go."

"Where?"

"Where else? Juvenile Hall."

- - -

Alvira's office was not exactly something to behold. It was pretty plain save for the table in the middle that had only two chairs around it. There was a desk off to the side with a computer that appeared five years too old on it, and there was something empty about the whole place. At first, Leo could not point it out, but as Alvira busied herself in the adjacent kitchen fixing the tea, it finally came to him. There were no photos of family or friends.

The auburn-haired woman walked back into the office carrying a silver platter with a pitcher, two teacups, a bowl of sugar, and saucer of milk. She smiled kindly down at him as she set the tray on the table before taking the chair opposite of him.

Leo said nothing. He simply sat there, awkwardly, unsure of what exactly he was supposed to be doing.

Was she checking to make sure that he hadn't been trying to break into the building? Or that he wasn't a bad person? Or maybe she was keeping him there until the cops showed up to arrest him for trespassing. He would not be surprised, and it would be just his luck, too.

Alvira busied herself with picking the teacup off of the tray and pouring herself some tea. She added sugar, milk, and was about to take a sip when she seemed to finally have noticed that Leo had not moved at all. She lowered the teacup back down onto the table and gave him a look.

"So, why aren't you with your parents?"

Leo glowered. "I'm nineteen. Do I need to be?"

"Well, you obviously aren't in college, and you obviously don't have a job, so what else do you plan to do? Live off your brothers?" Alvira handed Leo a cup of tea and passed him the sugar.

"There's an idea," he muttered, but he wasn't being serious. After a moment of simply swirling the spoon aimlessly around in his teacup and watching the sugar dissolve, he leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "Does it matter?"

"I just like to know whether I'm getting paid and whether or not I'm getting a new tenant. And, I like to get to know people. When was the last time you did that?" Alvira took a sip of her tea, watching each one of Leo's reactions to her words.

Leo smirked down into his cup.

"See, I think you got me confused with my brothers," he said. "Wyatt's the one that usually doesn't take the time to get to know the women he sleeps with. Chris... well, he wouldn't know the difference between the face of a book and a face of a human-being if his life depended on it. And me? I always take the time to get to know people. It's not my fault I usually don't like what I know."

Alvira chuckled a bit at Leo's comeback. She couldn't help but think of some of her old friends and maybe their past angsty years. "And when was the last time you tried to get to know a human being that hasn't robbed a bank?"

"Last week," Leo said easily. "He was only _planning_ to rob a bank."

"Yeah, but he got caught, so that doesn't matter."

Leo rolled his eyes. He back tracked a moment before repeating, "When was the last time I tried to get know someone...?" He paused, wondering why he was even going to bother answering her, before saying, "Well, I just graduated high school a few months ago. So, there you go: high school."

"High school, huh? And you're just visiting your brothers for fun? Good, clean fun? I don't believe it. What kind of fight did you have with your par-?"

Before Alvira could finish the question, much to Leo's relief, a woman screamed from up the stairs. Leo and Alvira raced up the stairs, with Leo well ahead of her as Alvira yelled, "That's Mrs. Kennedy! She's supposed to be on bed rest!"

Leo got to the door before Alvira could and got in. There was a child crying from across the room, but Leo left it alone. The little boy seemed okay from where he was standing. Leo waited for a new sound but nothing came. Finally, he opted for going to the bedroom.

What he saw there was of no frightening consequence to him, although he was pissed at the intrusion of magic in his life. That was exactly what he needed at the moment. There was a forty-something-year-old woman on the ground, clutching her stomach, as a ghost stood over her body holding a gun. The ghost couldn't have been more than twelve years old. He was Asian, and something about his delicate features combined with the hatred of his stance frightened the witchlighter.

"Hey!"

The boy looked up, and Leo almost jumped back. The ghost's eyes were almost as black as what he imagined to be the Source's from the stories that he heard growing up. The child's facial expression was passive though his eyes – those eyes that were as black as coal – were filled with hatred and vengeance. For a moment, he hesitated. Then he raised his hands with a determined stance.

"Shoot this."

Leo flicked his hands, attempting to freeze the ghost and get the woman out of there, but it didn't go the way he planned. He missed, first of all. Leo had not missed in the nineteen years that he had the power, but of course it would happen now, of all times. But to top it all off, he not only missed, but he also blew up the clock. Wait… blow up!?

Leo paused as he stared at the shards of the clock littered the room. Leo did not have the power to blow things up. He raised his hands, attempting to freeze the ghost again. The paintings on the far wall exploded. His eyes widened.

_Shit_.

Leo looked toward the woman, panic and fear beginning to run through his veins.

"Time to go!"

Mrs. Kennedy had difficulty getting up due to the injury to her stomach. Whether it had to do with the ghost or her own problems after giving birth, Leo had no idea. He ran to her and helped her up while the ghost, after a moment of shock at the intrusion, snapped out of it and started shooting.

They ran to the living area where Mrs. Kennedy, with great difficulty, leaned over and grabbed her son, while Leo helped them out of the apartment. As he started to leave, he saw a red-headed figure speaking to the ghost. It looked like it was Book of Shadows time.

When Leo walked out of the apartment, Alvira showed up out of nowhere.

"What took you so long?" Alvira demanded.

"Me? You didn't even show up!"

"Don't you yell at me like that."

"Whatever. I have to go."

With that, Leo disappeared down the hall, and much to his surprise, Alvira did not call him back. He just hoped he wouldn't have to deal with the police investigators later. That would definitely raise some questions that he would rather not answer.

- - -

It was night by the time the three of them finally reached the Juvenile Hall by car. Considering that the facility was located outside of the San Francisco city limits and in the middle of a patch of dry desert, Wyatt was surprised that they were able to find it at all. Derek's directions were not exactly what Wyatt would ever call reliable, and it had finally taken Chris stealing the address and map from the half-demon for them to finally be on the right track.

_We should have just orbed_, Wyatt thought as he climbed out of the car and stared up at the stone building.

It appeared to the blond like a prison. The stone walls were built thick and tall and everything was the same color of dull gray. As the three of them trekked inside, Wyatt peered into one of the rooms that they passed to see several teenage boys on the ground doing push-ups. There was a military officer of some sort at the front of the room barking orders as he paced back and forth between the rows of boys.

Derek, stone-faced and serious (something that Wyatt was not quite used to seeing, no matter how many years his best friend had been a cop), pulled out his badge as one of the military officers approached them. Upon seeing the badge, he walked away, muttering obscenities under his breath, and the trio continued on their way.

The office that the murder had happened in was still marked off with yellow crime scene tape covering the door. DJ walked up to the door, pulled out his pocket knife, and begin to cut open the crime scene.

Wyatt eyed him warily. "Are you sure you should be doing that?"

DJ simply grinned at him, and Wyatt knew that meant 'no'.

The crime scene tape was pulled off and the door swung open. Immediately, the confined smell of stale blood reached his senses. Wyatt grimaced only slightly - he usually dealt with fresh blood at the hospital, stale and decomposing blood was usually not his style. He stepped into the office, his blue eyes quickly sweeping over the awards and military honors that adorned the walls.

"I guess we better get this over with. Chris, no finger prints. Back of hand only," he reminded his little brother, even though he knew Chris did not need to be told. It was more out of habit anyway. "This Marshall guy sure did get a lot of awards," he murmured, staring at the plaques. "Civil Service, Public Value, Key to the City, Communication, Honorary Firefighter..." He ticked off each award as he passed them before finally shaking his head in disbelief. "This guy was practically a saint. Did he have any skeletons in his closet?"

"You mean, other than being a witness to the murder of Mark Lang?" Derek asked Wyatt.

When the look on Wyatt's face was one of stern 'this-is-business-time-not-joke-time', Derek wiped the smirk was off of his face.

"Not that I know of, man. If he did have any skeletons they were probably cleaned and dusted every night. Just look at the sparkle of this room! Even after he was murdered, this place was well taken care of. Come to mention it, the whole place is."

Chris continued to move about the room, touching something every-once-in-awhile with the back of his hand. "Hey, dude, the knife."

Derek tossed the knife to Chris. As soon as Chris caught it, there was a sharp intake of breath as Chris received a premonition.

There was a flash in Chris's eyes while he was forced to see Mark Lang, filled with anger, standing over a body. The boy was frightening, the coal dark eyes focusing on his next victim, a man of seventy years that had obviously been through his share of health problems. There was an oxygen mask, an I.V., and a heart monitor set up next to the bed that the man was laying on. The boy held up a pair of scissors. Chris wasn't sure whether he was going to stab the man or cut the cord, but either way, the man was going to die.

Chris's eyes opened as quickly as they had shut. Derek and Wyatt had gotten to Chris as soon as they could.

Wyatt placed both of his hands on his brother's shoulders, trying to steady the slightly younger man. His eyes swept over Chris's frame, making sure that the premonition had not thrown off his balance, before asking, "What did you see?"

"The boy was standing over an old man, maybe seventy, about to kill him. I don't know how. He was set up to a heart monitor and he was either gonna stab him or pull the plug. Dude... I could feel his hatred. It wasn't pretty."

Wyatt stared at Chris for a moment before turning to his half-demon friend. "Past or future, DJ? Has anybody died in a hospital yet?"

"No... Hey, was it this guy?" D.J. asked as he pulled out a picture of an old man from the file he was carrying.

"Yes! How did you know?"

"He's the only man old enough to be in the type of condition to need to be in a hospital. I pulled all the guys working here earlier and studied their stats. I wasn't sure who would be next. Besides, most of the other guys are dead, retired, or really young. He's the only one that's really old. So, what now?" DJ asked looking to Chris and Wyatt.

Wyatt paused for a moment, his eyes sweeping across the office again. They needed more than just a 'who'. "You didn't happen to catch an approximate time that this premonition of yours is supposed to take place, did you?"

"You didn't happen to be born with the power to control the power of premonition, did you? No! I didn't. That's not how it happens; you know that as well as I do."

"Well, you never know... there might be a window open or a clock nearby..."

He trailed off knowing that he was shooting at straws. Those sorts of things would make their job easy, and the job could never be easy for a Halliwell. It was like a rule or something.

Wyatt rubbed at the bridge of his nose as he tried to come up with something quick. He glanced at his watch, frowning as he saw the time start to approach the witching hour. He sighed.

"I just wish we knew when this was going to take place so that we could take some time to go get prepared," he muttered.

"Hey, I have a suggestion," DJ chirped up.

"Oh, great, the almighty dumbass has a suggestion," Chris responded at DJ's sudden intrusion in the conversation.

"Calm down, Professor Trelawney. What if I go to the hospital and keep an eye on the old man while you two run to Mommy and Daddy's place and take a look at the Book? If he shows up before you're done, I'm sure I can hold off a little bitty ghost with no powers, and if not, you two will be there when he does. Sound good?" And without a word from either of the two, he continued, "Good."

"Wait, DJ, you don't even know-"

Before Chris could finish his sentence, DJ had shimmered out.

"Great," Wyatt said dryly. "Now we get to drive the car all the way back home. That's another three hour drive."

He was almost tempted to suggest that they just orb home and get the car tomorrow, but he knew that Chris would never go for it. So, instead, he led them back out of the office. On a sudden whim, he turned back toward the torn tape and with a flick of his hand, the tape was right again. He saw Chris glaring reproachfully at him as his mother's words rang through his head, 'Personal gain!' He ignored both, however. It wasn't personal gain. He was making sure that the cops couldn't light a fire underneath DJ's ass.

At least, not yet anyway.

---

Leo had been standing outside the manor for a good two to three hours now. He knew that he should feel a greater sense of urgency - a ghost was out there trying to murder an innocent woman! - but his distaste in returning to this place held more power over him. He knew that he was being selfish in thinking like that, but he had never been like Chris or Wyatt. He had never been a gung-ho demon fighter, innocent saver extraordinaire.

That didn't mean that he was just going to let this woman die, though.

He waited until one by one each of the lights in the manor were shut off. He figured that if he waited until his parents were asleep before orbing into the manor, then he shouldn't have to confront either of them. The bedroom light had been the last to go out, and that had been about an hour ago. That meant that they were probably asleep by now.

Pushing off of the tree that he had been leaning against, he glanced up and down the street for anybody who might be able to spot him when he orbed. He was standing in the shadows and basically out of sight, but he could never be too sure. He was just about to orb when the sound of an approaching vehicle made him pause.

He recognized the black SUV right away, and when the car pulled up in front of the manor, he knew that he was right. From where he was standing, he could see the rear view mirror light shining into the faces of his brothers who appeared to be discussing something. Wyatt turned to look up at the house, but halfway there, his gaze swiveled and instead found Leo's own.

They stared at one another.

How exactly Wyatt had known he was there, Leo would probably never know. Sometimes, his brother crept him out with all of the weird things he could do with his magic.

Leo's gaze shifted to see Chris glaring at him from the corner of his eyes. While he had finished parking, he had not hesitated in letting Leo know that his presence was not appreciated. At least not in the middle child's eyes.

Wyatt and Chris both got out of the car. While Chris's anger was evident, Wyatt made slow, quiet movements, so not to disturb the neighborhood, or else Chris's temper.

"Come to apologize to Mom in the middle of the night, little brother? Because if you're not, then you shouldn't be here."

Leo's gaze hardened as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't have to explain myself to you," he snapped, ready to turn and walk away.

Wyatt's hand on his arm stopped him, though.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, but his voice not accusatory like Chris's had been.

For a moment, Leo considered answering his eldest brother, but a flicker of a look toward Chris made him think twice. "I could be asking you the same thing."

Wyatt shot Chris a warning look as the brunette opened his mouth to tell Leo off more. The eldest Halliwell brother turned back to Leo and gave him an ironical smile, "What do we always do when we turn up late at night at the manor?"

"Demon hunt?" Leo answered, dryly.

Wy smirked. "It's not exactly a demon this time."

That got Leo's interest peaked. He stood a little straighter and - ignoring Chris who was obviously getting a little impatient - asked, "Wouldn't happen to be a ghost, would it?"

"Come across something while you were in the middle of drugs, did you, bro?" Chris asked his brother, although his curiosity was beginning to overcome his anger.

"Why don't you just shut your fucking mouth, Chris?" Leo growled, glaring at his brother.

"Why don't you grow the fuck up, Leo?" Chris retorted a little more loudly than intended.

"Can we please not do this now?" Wyatt snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose to try to remain calm.

He had been up for almost twenty hours now, and he was starting to get a little agitated. He did not need his brothers to start trying to kill each other outside their old childhood home.

"The last thing we need is for Mom and Dad to have to come out here and separate the two of you." He took a deep breath and gave a warning glare toward Chris before turning his attention back on Leo. "Now... how'd you know it was a ghost?"

Leo held his tongue against Chris if only for Wyatt's sake. It was not often that the eldest Halliwell lost his temper, and Leo knew that it was not a pretty sight when he did.

"There was this ghost at your apartment complex today," Leo said finally after a moment of silence. "It attacked some woman. A, uh... Mrs Kennedy, I think."

"Hey, Wy, did DJ give you that file?" Chris turned to Wyatt after hearing the news and momentarily forgot of his anger towards the youngest Halliwell.

"Yes, he did," he said, staring at Leo for a moment before turning toward the car. "File," he muttered, and in a swirl of blue orbs, the manila folder appeared in the oldest brother's hands. He ignored Chris's warning glare and flipped through it, stopping once he found the picture of the Asian boy. He held it up to Leo. "This the ghost?"

Leo blinked. "Actually... yes."

"Great," Wyatt muttered, closing the file again. He turned to Chris. "Book of Shadows time? We can fill each other in while looking through the Book."

- - -

DJ entered the hospital ground floor and immediately spotted the reception desk. Well, not so much the reception desk as the nurse standing behind it.

"Hey there," he greeted her with a sly wink and leaned over the desk. "You new here?"

"Yes." She busied herself with shuffling papers, ignoring DJ to the fullest. "Is there someone you needed to see-?"

"Besides you?"

"Or do you make it a practice of coming into hospitals to flirt with nurses?" She looked up at DJ and waited for his answer before returning to her work.

"Do you make it a practice of being rude to people whose grandfather is dying?" DJ retorted.

The woman immediately apologized. "I am so sorry. There have been a couple of guys lurking around like that, and, well, I just never know who's good and who's bad anymore!"

"You're telling me," DJ mumbled. "Well, don't worry about them. If you need any... protection, just get a hold of me." DJ slipped a number on the desk and added, "My grandfather, Charles Conroy... which room is he in?"

The nurse let the number sit there and proceeded to look up his room number. "314."

"Thanks. And don't let that number just sit there, you know. You don't want to lose it, do you?"

She scowled and DJ walked away, smiling. Another good day's work.

- - -

The attic had not changed since Leo had last been up here. At least, not from what he could tell. It was crammed full of so much stuff, that somebody could move something around, and he would probably never notice. The single window in the attic let him overlook the whole neighborhood, all of which appeared to be sleeping peacefully. He looked over his shoulder toward his brothers.

Chris was standing over the podium flipping through the Book of Shadow pages with his telekinesis. It was slow enough that each page registered in his mind before passing, but fast enough that the pace was ten times faster than what it could have been.

Wyatt was lying down on the couch. From Leo's view point, it appeared as though his older brother had dozed off. He thought about throwing something at him or even blowing something up near his head for the hell of it, but he decided against it. He did not want to give Chris anymore reason to jump down his throat - and he definitely did not want to give Wyatt a reason to side with him.

Leo glanced back toward the book again just in time to see a certain page come up. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of the woman that had almost slipped his mind - before the page was suddenly being turned.

"Wait!" he called appearing at Chris's side and tearing back through the pages to the woman. "I've seen her!"

"Yeah, probably when mom was reading the story to us as kids," Chris said before turning the page once more.

"No!" Leo snapped, turning the page back again. "I meant today, dumbass. She was talking to the ghost at the apartments; right before I got out of there, I saw her. I... I kind of forgot about it until just now."

"You saw this demon?" Chris asked him for reassurance. At Leo's nod, Chris looked worried. "She doesn't appear to have a vanquish, unfortunately. She's the Soul Collector." He stared at the page before beginning to read aloud in a slow mumble, "_A beautiful yet evil demon, the Soul Collector seeks the souls of witches, and empower mortal ghosts with special abilities to help her gain those souls_."

He stopped, frowning at that. Beside him, Leo shifted slightly.

"It says here that Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Prue vanquished a ghost that she got her paws on, and the Soul Collector swore her revenge. Great, more grudges against the family."

"Think she'll come after us?" Leo muttered, trying not to sound worried.

But he _was_ worried. He wasn't like Chris and Wyatt, and he doubted that he would be much use in a demon fight if he was thrown into one. Even if he did have a new offensive power.

"Think most evil wants to kill us?" Chris looked toward his little brother, most of his anger forgotten. At the worry in little Leo's hazel eyes, Chris sighed. "Hate to break it to you, but yeah, I think she will. If not her, then her little Asian friend will."

"Great," Leo said dryly.

He stared at the page of the Soul Collector, her face seeming a lot more threatening than she did earlier that day. Perhaps it was the way she was drawn with such intricate detail, but it was enough to send a shiver down his spine. She had not seemed that terrifying looking when she had been talking to the ghost-kid in the apartment...

Leo blinked.

"You know..." he said, hesitantly. Never having studied magic seriously, he wasn't sure if what he was about to say was going to sound stupid or not. "That kid had black eyes - like completely black; what if he was being possessed? I mean, hell, he was quiet and peaceful for - what? - fifteen years, right? So why start killing people now, especially with that one guard right in his grasp? Unless he didn't have a choice?"

Chris reread the quip on The Soul Collector while thinking about Leo's suggestion. After a moment of lolling it over in his mind, Chris began to believe that his brother was right.

"You know, I think you're right. You might just be a good witch yet. Wanna demon hunt, little brother? We're going to need the power to freeze."

The small smile that spread across his face at his brother's semi-compliment was genuine, but it quickly fell again as Chris mentioned his freezing power. He frowned down at the Book, unsure of what to say for a moment. He had not been able to successfully use his freezing power since this afternoon when he had ended up blowing the clock up. His powers were all out of sorts.

"What can we do about the ghost?" he asked, instead, avoiding the question.

"I'll have to make two spells: one to vanquish the Soul Collector and one to free the ghost of the possession. The possession spell should be easy enough; there was one about possessing humans somewhere. I can easily rewrite that. As for the vanquish for the Soul Collector, I'll have to either make a spell from scratch or use the 'To Banish a Ghost' spell and rewrite it. Unfortunately, either way, one of us will have to momentarily die and come back to life. And, if the ghost doesn't move on, we can always use this potion," Chris flipped to another page that he, weirdly enough, had memorized, "to get rid of its spirit. We just need to find his bones, but no worries there, though. Sound easy enough?"

"Not really," Leo said, staring at his brother. "Why will one of us have to die?"

"Only a ghost can vanquish another ghost, and since the demon's powers mostly work on ghosts, I believe that our powers will only work on her when we're ghosts as well."

Chris sighed. He was willing to do it, but he knew the news would be hard on Wyatt. But since he was the only one, regrettably so, without the power to heal, it had to be him. It was a good thing Aunt Prue left the recipe for the poison collada, because he would need it. Chris turned away from Leo and finished writing down the information that he needed. When he was done, he walked over to Wyatt.

"Hey, Bro, it's time to go back home. Let's get some sleep and I'll work on the spells tomorrow."

"Unless Derek calls us in the middle of the night," Wyatt murmured, groggily, sitting up as he rubbed at his eyes. He had to admit that he was surprised to still find both Chris and Leo there. He was sure one of them would have taken off by now.

"Come on, let's go, you lazy bum."

Chris started to walk away with Wyatt whimpering behind him, but paused and turned around. Leo was sitting down, silently wondering where it was he was supposed to go.

"Are you coming? We don't have all night."

Leo stared up at Chris, mouth hanging slightly open, before he was able to manage a meek nod.

Wyatt, oblivious to the exchange, groaned. "I'm going to have to skip classes tomorrow for this vanquish, aren't I?" he whined.

- - -

Morning was starting to peak through the window at the hospital. DJ sat in the visitor's chair that was conveniently set up beside the old man's bed with his feet resting on the little end table that was obviously set up for the placement of flowers. There were no flowers, however, and Derek bet that it was probably because the dying man suffered from 'Bitter Old Man Syndrome', something that was - unfortunately - not treatable.

A magazine was opened on his lap and he idly flipped through it, only taking a moment to stare at the pictures before moving to the next page. So far, his watch over the old man had been nothing but boring, a waste of time filled with beeping heart monitors and raspy machine-helped breathing. Not to mention that the clean hospital smell was starting to make him a little nauseous.

He was really starting to regret volunteering for this.

It was better than doing the boring 'witchy research', though, he supposed. He wasn't even tired like he knew Wyatt and Chris probably were, and that was part of the reason that he had decided to be the watchman for the night. As a half-demon, he didn't require as much sleep as his witchling friends, and he knew that they would have both conked out already from mere exhaustion alone.

He heard a slight noise from outside the door. Not knowing what it was, DJ stayed still and waited for it again. Realizing that, whatever it was wasn't coming into the room, DJ stood and opened the door quietly. Looking out, he noticed a nurse poking her head into rooms, checking on the patients before she left. That was it. No demonic or ghostly emergency. Damn, this was boring.

DJ checked his pockets for something to do. He found a deck of cards that he put in there for a poker night with the other cops that was planned, but unfortunately got canceled since the workload put on them since the recent killings. He looked to the old man and set the food tray in front of the old man.

"Up for some scraps? Of course you are."

- - -

"No! No fucking way! Not gonna happen! I don't give a rat's ass what your reasoning is, Chris. You're not just gonna go and kill yourself and hope that either me or Leo can heal you! If anybody's gonna kill you, it's gonna be me for you even thinking up this fucked up idea," Wyatt growled.

"I don't give a damn how much you argue, Wyatt! You're gonna have to fucking deal with it, because if either of you two die, I can't fucking save you! If the one that didn't die is in trouble, what? I'm supposed to let you lie there? Give me a fucking break!" Chris responded, having clearly inherited his mother's anger, as well as her language.

Leo sat at the table in the apartment's small kitchen area. He was keeping his mouth shut and not saying a word as Wyatt and Chris, tempers flaring, yelled in each other's faces. He had never seen Chris and Wyatt argue that much when he was younger, but he should have known that Chris's insistence that he should be the one to die would have riled Wyatt up. After all, Wyatt was the most overprotective brother in the world and there was nothing else to it.

"So, what? That's it!? No overlooking the facts, no second plans? What a pile of shit! You can't just stand there and tell me that the only way we're going to beat this thing is if one of us dies. You've been wrong before, Chris! And you're fucking wrong now. Now find some other way for us to do this!" he barked.

"You think I haven't tried to find another fucking way to do this?! You think I want to die? What the hell, man! If you think there's another way for us to do this, then you come up with it, because I'm telling you, there's no other way to kill this demon. Now get over your fucking self and let's get it over with! And if you still disagree, ask Mom!" Chris panted.

Leo chose that moment to pipe up. "You know, I could always be the one to die, I'm sure nobody'll mind-"

"No!" two voices snapped.

_At least they agree on something_, Leo thought dryly.

Wyatt opened his mouth again, perhaps to tell his little brother what an idiot he was being, when a loud, upbeat ring-tone cut him off. He glared at the two of them as though it was their fault that he had been interrupted, before he pulled his cell phone out his pocket and snapped a quick, "What!" into the receiver end.

Derek's voice came through the other end, obviously distracted and he was obviously moving fast.

"_Hey, uh, dude. There's a killer ghost on my ass, and I don't mean a tattoo. Could you, uh, get your ass over here, __**now**_!"

And at that, Derek hung up.

Wyatt stared at his phone.

"Shit," he muttered before shoving it back into his pocket.

He wanted to wait; he wanted to stay and argue; he wanted to find another way; but his best friend's life was now in danger along with an innocent back at the hospital, and their time was up in arguing. They had been arguing all morning over this while Chris brewed the 'Potion of Death' (Wyatt's name for it) and wrote the two spells that were lying on the table. Now, there really was no choice. He swallowed and looked into his little brother's green eyes, trying to get him to understand his fear. He couldn't lose his brothers - either one of them - he couldn't.

"You have five minutes to do what you need to do, and then we're reviving you, whether it's worked or not. Got it?" Wyatt hated how his voice shook ever so slightly.

"Got it."

Chris picked up the potion and the two spells. When Wyatt wasn't looking, Chris pocketed another potion, just in case the first one was damaged. _And_, he thought to himself, _if Wyatt brings me back to life too soon_.

"Leo, don't forget to freeze the room when we get there," Chris said, standing up straight. "As much as I regret it, we're gonna have to orb."

"Freeze the room," Leo repeated, going slightly pale. "Right."

"Good. Then let's go," Wyatt said, tersely, his eyes pinning Chris with a stare before he disappeared in a shower of blue orbs. Chris and Leo followed seconds later.

- - -

At once, Chris recognized the familiar feeling of seeing his premonition coming true. There he was, Mark Lang, standing over the elderly man's body with a pair of scissors, and DJ was on the floor, knocked out cold, probably from a blunt object of some sort.

"Hey! Marky!" Chris yelled out. At once, he sent the scissors flying out of the ghost's hands. "Leo! Freeze him!"

Leo hesitated for only a moment before his arms raised and he flicked his wrists out. The cabinets over the ghost's head exploded.

"Shit," he cursed.

"Great! You have a new power. Congratulations. _Why didn't you tell me you have a new power, Leo_?"

Chris turned to battle the ghost, but Wyatt was already there, attempting to use those gifts he received at being the "Twice-Blessed" child and all. Chris went to DJ and attempted to find out what he could do to help him, but with no power to heal, he couldn't call upon his friend's help.

"Can you heal DJ, or is that power fucked up too?"

"Not helping!" Wyatt shouted over his shoulder having heard what Chris said.

Just then, the ghost smashed a hospital tray against the side of his head. He fell into the wall and grimaced slightly as he slid down it but was fine. If you didn't count his bruised pride.

"I hate kids," he growled, "especially ones that come back from the dead to kill people."

The ghost raised the tray again, ready to strike Wyatt with it once more.

"Not again!" Wyatt shouted raising his hand as a blue shield emitted from it. A moment later, the shield expanded quickly, sending the ghost and the tray slamming into the opposite wall. For a moment, the ghost disappeared. "Finally! A power that works against that little bitch."

"He's half-demon, Chris," Leo said, feeling frozen on the spot. "I'm not Wyatt; I can't heal him. Not completely anyway."

Leo's low voice had not reached Wyatt's adrenaline filled ears.

"Chris, if you still plan on committing momentary suicide, now would be the time!" he called, his eyes darting around the room, searching for where the ghost would appear once more.

"Okay, I'm dying. Geez. Can't wait to get rid of me, can you?"

Chris took the potion out of his pocket and popped the cork. He turned to Leo before drinking.

"We'll talk about this later."

And then, Chris downed the poison collada. It was interesting, dying. He really didn't feel any pain except for the slight burning sensation of the potion. Before he knew it, his body had collapsed while he was standing over it. Less than a second later, the ghost had walked back through the opposite wall. Wyatt jumped to his feet while Leo knelt by Chris's body, his eyes wide and uncertain.

The first spell was to get rid of the damn possession. Luckily, Chris was good at memorizing and never needed the copies in the first place.

"_Host ghost reject this evil essence,  
Let good's light end this cruel possession_."

There was an awful hissing sound, suddenly, and then the ghost was falling to his knees and clutching his throat as though choking. There was black mist leaking from the boy's mouth and ears, and he continued to cough, choke, and gag as the mist escaped his body, rose into the air, and dispersed. At once, the Soul Collector arrived, obviously angered by the disruption of her work. Mark Lang looked around, light brown eyes gazing around the room, confused by his whereabouts.

"What have you done!? Oh, I see..." The Soul Collector looked Chris up and down. "The soul of a witch. This could work to my advantage."

Chris looked at her in panic. Both brothers began to battle her, knowing that her only plan was to get their brother and leave.

"If you want Chris, you're going to have to go through me first," Wyatt said, standing protectively in front of the collapsed body of his brother as he orbed the hospital tray at the demon's head.

_Let's see how she likes it_, he thought wryly.

"Next spell, Chris," Leo hissed, having gotten to his feet to stand in front of his brother as well.

Finally, that explosive power seemed to be coming in handy.

In a powerful voice, Chris began chanting the final spell.

"_Ashes to dust, spirit to demon,  
cleanse this evil from our mist,  
take her soul and let her no longer exist_."

After the third chant, the Soul Collector gave out a horrible wail. From her inner core to her outer, she began to burn. Her ashes fell to the ground, and were swept away by a seemingly invisible, unnoticeable wind.

"Damn," Leo muttered, slightly awed, still staring at the place the woman had been a moment before.

Suddenly, Chris began to float upwards. "Uh, guys? Hate to break up the party, but I think I'm leaving..."

Wyatt spun on the balls of his feet. "Like hell you are," he muttered, sliding into a kneel beside brother's body.

He hovered his hands over Chris's heart, and closed his eyes, letting the love he felt for his baby brother fill his thoughts as his hands began to glow. At first, the magic was slow, transferring at a syrupy slow pace from his own body into Chris's. Then it began to flow quicker as he felt the blood in the brunette's body begin to flow again.

A second, another, and then-

"Thank God," Wyatt breathed as Chris coughed a bit, gasping for breath.

"Took you long enough. Good plan, though, wasn't it?" Chris said, as he struggled to get up.

"Good plan, my ass," Wyatt muttered, but he was still smiling.

In the midst of their brotherly moment, DJ decided to grace the hospital with his presence. "Man, how many tequila shot did I have?" As he got up, he realized where he was. "Oh, shit. That was a damn dream." He looked at Wyatt. "There weren't any triplets here, were there?"

"Nope," Wyatt grinned. "And you didn't even get laid. Unless you count Mr Rogers over there," he added, nodding toward their innocent who was still blissfully out of it.

"Fuck you."

"Sorry, man, I don't roll that way. Besides," he added with a smirk, "I didn't know you were into blonds."

"Go fuck yourself." Before Wyatt could respond, DJ noticed little Leo. "Hey, fuckface... done any criminal acts lately?"

Chris turned to Leo automatically. "Don't freeze him."

But Chris had not spoken quickly enough. On reflex, Leo's hand shot out with a subtle flick in the half-demon's general direction. The empty bedpans sitting on the counter beside DJ exploded into several tiny plastic particles. Leo raised a single eyebrow as Derek flinched away from the explosion, looking more than just a little surprised.

"You're lucky I missed," he muttered.

"Don't make me scratch you." DJ muttered before he opted for shimmering out, knowing that Leo would laugh. Leo never really understood that if DJ wanted to, he could kill him.

Leo rolled his eyes at the space where Derek had been standing moments before. Movement out of the corner of his eye made him turn, and he froze upon seeing the ghost of Mark Lang standing by the old man's bedside. Worst case scenario ran through his head.

"Hey!" he called, but the ghost did not react right away.

Instead, the boy just stood there, gazing down at the old man's face as though searching for something.

"He was a lot younger when he used to work at the correctional facility," the boy said suddenly. "He was really nice, too. One of the good ones, y'know? One of the officers that never really gave up on the kids even though they gave him hell time and time again. He was also really good at keeping a watch on the new officers that came in - the rookies that were thrown into that place that didn't really know what they were doing. Officer Marshall was one of those rookies."

From the way Chris and Wyatt glanced at each other, it was obvious that they knew that name. Leo had never heard it before, however, but his interest was peaked. He took a step closer and continued to listen as the boy kept talking.

"I guess he was a good guy, but he got angry so easily. And in a place like the Juvenile Hall... well, it's not that hard to get angry there. I know he didn't mean to... I mean, it's not like it was his intention to... to hurt me or anything... He was just new, and he didn't really know how to calm all of the boys down...

"A fight broke out in the middle of lunch. About fifteen boys in all began to beat up on each other; I kind of just got stuck in the middle. I've never been one for fighting: too small, too scrawny… I've always been more of the run and hide type, y'know? Well, somebody grabbed me from behind and tried to restrain me; I fought back… out of instinct, I guess. I didn't realize it was one of the officers till I was pinned to the ground - that's how they were taught to calm us down: pin us down and make sure we can't do any harm to ourselves or to any one else. I stopped struggling once I realized who it was, but I guess he didn't realize that. He was so heavy, I couldn't breathe, but I guess he didn't realize that either."

Mark left the old man's side and walked to the window, looking out it with a sad expression. It was the first time that he actually looked the age he had been when he died - just a young twelve year old boy.

"Everybody saw! Everybody knows who it was! But nobody wanted to say anything... Not even Lieutenant Conroy said anything. He didn't want to believe it, y'know? He didn't want to believe that one of his own men could do something like that... but he knew one of them did and he knew which did, too. It changed him, I guess. But not enough to come forward. I guess an officer's reputation is more important than the truth of who killed an unimportant juvenile delinquent."

There was a silence.

"I guess you got your revenge in the end, though," Leo said, quietly. It seemed almost wrong to interrupt, but it was better than letting the silence continue.

Mark bowed his head and took a sharp breath.

"I didn't want to kill anybody," he whispered, his voice shaking. "I just wanted people to know the truth. I just wanted my parents to find closure. I just wanted justice..."

"You got your justice, Mark, even if it's not in the way you imagined," the youngest Halliwell brother said gently.

The ghost turned to face him, shimmering tears shining in his eyes. "What about my parents?"

"They lost a son. Nobody can ever find closure after something like that. The only thing you can do for them is to move on so that they know, without a doubt, that you're in a good place and you've finally found peace." Where these words were coming from, Leo was not exactly sure, but they sounded like the right thing to say.

"I caused them a lot of trouble, y'know... stealing, running away... I wasn't exactly the best kid in the world. They only sent me to that place so that I could learn to calm down a little. I never meant to make them so upset. I wish I had listened a little more." He looked at Leo again, as though he had all the answers. "Do you think they could forgive me?"

And, suddenly, Leo knew why he knew what to say. "They already have," he whispered.

With that, Mark smiled a watery smile and disappeared in a patch of golden light.

Chris hesitated before finally walking up to Leo. He wasn't sure if it was right for any contact, but he did know that it was time for some words of encouragement. "Hey, um. That was a good thing. What you said to him."

Wyatt, smiling proudly at both of his brothers, walked up to Leo and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You did good, little brother," he said, and though Leo's smile was more directed at Wyatt's hand than his brother's face, the swell of pride in his chest was all the same.

There was a sudden knocking at the door.

"Mr Conroy! Mr Conroy!" a frantic voice cried from the other side. Then, as though she was shouting down the hall, "Help! Help! Does anybody have a key to this room! The door's locked!"

All three brothers' eyes widened.

"Shit," Leo cursed, feeling like a deer caught in the headlights.

"This place is a mess," Wyatt muttered. Then, seeing Chris's warning look, he glared back. "Fuck personal gain, Chris.

_Let the object of objection  
become but a dream  
as I cause the scene to be unseen_.

Thank you, Aunt Paige."

The room quickly righted itself to its former cleanliness. Looking around to make sure that there was no left over evidence of them ever being there, he grabbed Chris's arm - mostly because his brother still looked a little unsteady on his feet - and nodded to Leo.

"Let's go," the eldest Halliwell brother ordered, and once he saw Leo begin to disappear in a shower of blue orbs, he followed with Chris as passenger.

- - -

Song: "I'm Still Here" by Vertical Horizon

Unlike the last time Leo had stood outside a door contemplating whether or not to knock, it was not raining. It was not even night like the last time with the afternoon sun blaring into his back. He was glad that he had left his leather jacket back at the apartment, but he still shifted his feet anxiously as he stood waiting.

No less than an hour ago had he watched his brother die in front of him and then come back to life. No less than an hour ago had he watched a troubled teen - that, he admitted, reminded him of himself only a few years ago - finally find peace and move on. Leo had never been too keen to learn magic, and within the past twenty-four hours, he had been more involved than he had his entire life.

There was a pressure resting on his shoulders now, but it did not feel unpleasant.

Finally, taking a deep breath, he raised his fist and knocked.

He could hear instant scuffling from inside, and he leaned against the door frame, hoping it would brace him for whatever reaction the person inside would have at the sight of him. His heart was beating a mile a minute and he almost considered orbing away before the door could be opened - but then the locks were clicking and the door was swinging wide and it was too late.

Leo held his breath.

Piper opened the door to find her youngest, most exhausting son on the other side. Her eyes were puffy and her nose was a shiny, natural red. The kind of red a nose became after crying for several hours. Upon seeing Leo, Piper had not the slightest inkling about what she could say or what she could do to make him understand what she felt...although, she thought, he probably already knew.

That was, after all, a part of their fight. For the past four years, Piper did not know her son, and did not know how to get to know her son. For the past four years, she lived with a stranger. An adult stranger, for, she had realized, that with this power, her son grew up and became something she was afraid of. No mother should ever be afraid of her own son.

They stood in silence for a good five minutes until Piper had the courage to speak. She took a deep breath.

"Leo..."

"I know what you're feeling," he blurted out.

Piper took a moment to contemplate those words. Slowly, she responded, "But, what are you feeling, Leo?"

Voice caught in throat, Leo did the only thing he could to answer her. He hugged her.

"I'm sorry, Mom," he whispered. And he was.

- - -

DJ and Wyatt walked side-by-side as they approached the door of the Lang's house, both wearing grim faces. DJ wore his police uniform so that all of his information would come off as true, not that it wasn't. Wyatt planned to act as an old friend of Mark's. It was lucky that Mark would have only been a couple years older than he was. Lucky indeed.

DJ walked to the front door and knocked. The house was decorated nicely, though it was still evident that it was still in mourning. He didn't know how, but DJ felt as though the house was dressed in black too.

"I guess they never really got over it," Wyatt murmured, as he stared up at the house.

The door was carefully being unlatched from the inside and two people were obviously peering out at them from the peephole. DJ could sense them, one, barely even as tall as he, and the other at least an inch shorter. When they had realized that the man on the other side was indeed an officer, they opened the door.

"Do you know what happened to our son?" The wife asked immediately, hopefully.

The man and woman both still hid behind the door, only cracking it enough for them to see who stood beyond it. DJ looked surprised. He had not expected such a blunt question about their son, especially so soon.

"Well, yeah-yes. Actually I do."

"Mr and Mrs Lang," Wyatt cut in carefully. Somehow, the fact that they had asked the question right away had not surprised him. "This is Officer Evans and my name is Wyatt Halliwell. I used to... share a dorm with your son at the Juvenile Hall." He didn't know if telling them that he used to be a delinquent was exactly a good idea, but he went with it anyway. "Officer Evans has been... investigating your son's murder with my help - I'm a medical student - and he found out something that I think you might want to hear."

"Um, Mr and Mrs Lang, the man that murdered your son went by the name of Officer Marshall. He was recently murdered as well. I just thought that it might help you to... move on for you to hear this information. Here you are, it's the file on your son. We won't need it anymore."

DJ handed them the file, and they opened the door wider. Mrs. Lang collapsed at the news and fell into her husband's arms.

Out of the corner of their eyes, in the front yard of the house, Mark Lang stood, watching his parents with a sad smile on his face.

- - -

Sound: Music fades

There was a weariness in Chris's bones when he got home after the battle with the ghost. It was a weariness that had not been present before or had ever appeared after any fight that he could think of. It was as though he was still slightly detached from his own skin, though he knew that Wyatt had healed him perfectly. He did not mention anything to his brothers, but the moment the two of them were gone, he laid down in his bed, expecting to sleep quite a while.

He was half right.

In the midst of his sleep, he found himself in another place, another time, another world. And yet, as foreign as everything appeared, he felt right at home.

His hair was longer. He was tougher, more used to evil than he let on, and less emotional. His mother was there, and she was Mother Earth. Literally. But she did not trust him; none of his family did. And all he could do was watch and listen.

"_Friend or foe?"_

"_Not so sure yet."_

"_What do you mean? I saved Paige, didn't I?"_

"_Oh, you call that saving, do you?"_

A flash.

_"What are you doing?" _

_"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to find a way to free stone cold Paige over there." _

_"Step away from the book." _

_"Oh, please. Like I haven't looked in this thing before? By the way, you should update you're goblins entry. It'll come in handy someday." _

_"Goblins?" _

_"Yeah. It's gonna get ugly. Trust me. Look, I know you have no reason to trust me, but the Book thinks I'm good, shouldn't you?" _

_"Well, maybe you found a way around it." _

There was another flash.

_"Where the hell is Leo? It's been five hours and he hasn't responded to any of my calls."_

_"I really don't know." _

_"Well, I really think you do know." _

_"Well, maybe I do, and if I'm right, Leo's gonna need some major alone time." _

_"You know what? Cut the cryptic crap. I want you to go up there and bring Leo back now." _

_"Fine. But if I was you I would focus on finding a way to unfreeze Paige 'cause you're gonna need her... soon." _

Another flash.

"_Power? Power's good. I like power. Why do I like power?"_

"_Because you're the Goddess of War."_

"_Ahh. Well, I guess that explains the pitchfork."_

"_It's not a pitchfork. It's a trident. Be careful; that's a formidable weapon."_

"_Right on. Who wants to fight?"_

"_I'm a lover, not a fighter."_

"_You're the Goddess of Love."_

"_Naturally. Well, that must make me the Goddess of Sanity because I find this ridiculous!" _

A flash.

"_Chris, you never told us. Do you have a girlfriend in the future?"_

A flash.

"_What the hell is this? Goddesses gone wild?"_

A flash.

"_Wow, you guys really are hopeless without Leo."_

A flash.

"_Don't worry, one day you'll learn to trust me… they all will."_

A flash.

_And Chris was orbing his father far away from him and his mother with a sick sense of satisfaction._

Then it was all over, and Chris awoke with a gasp. He was drenched in a cold sweat that left him shivering slightly and he had to take a moment to catch his breath. Despite was logic was screaming at him as he stumbled out of bed, his limbs feeling like lead, all of his instincts were screaming the same thing at him.

That was no dream.

* * *

Next episode: "Fallen for You" 


	3. Episode Two

**Disclaimer:** We do not own Charmed any way, form, shape, or fashion. I bet that's a relief for all of you, hm?

**Summary: **Still hellbent on moving out, Leo begins to search for another apartment while Chris begins to have a little trouble balancing running P3, taking his film classes, and dealing with these weird dreams that he's been having. Wyatt, meanwhile, learns just how difficult it is to have to watch people suffering without being able to use magic to heal them. And things just get all the more complicated when a Fallen Angel drops on their doorstep looking for help... in love?

**Author's Notes:** Just a reminder: There are two people writing this fanfiction. Once again, this Kaye, but unlike before – it is _not_ after midnight and O Tuachair is still awake! Yaey!

We apologize for taking so long with this update. Other things got in the way and we lost inspiration halfway through and it was just a big old mess. However, it's still ongoing even if it's slow trucking. Hopefully, you'll forgive us. Right? Maybe.

Constructive criticism is welcome.

Enjoy!

* * *

**The Phoenix Trials**

**Chapter Two: Fallen For You**

GUEST STARS:

DANES, Claire... Hope  
BUTLER, Gerard... Laraje  
MILANO, Alyssa... Phoebe Halliwell  
WEBSTER, Victor... Coop Halliwell  
RAY, Charlie... Prudence 'Ladybug' Halliwell  
MARANO, Vanessa... Patricia 'Firefly' Halliwell  
ALLEN, Tessa... Penelope 'Bumblebee' Halliwell

In the depths of the underworld, two demons were sitting and waiting. It was dark, dank, and there were candles lighting the slightly cave-like area. One demon was meditating, rising above ground as his face switched from soothing to disturbed. He was searching for something. Another demon was scrounging on the lower levels, impatient as he devoured a meal of the remains of a previous demon. He watched the upper-level demon meditating, waiting for him to speak. Finally, the lower-level demon got too impatient for his own good and interrupted the diminishing silence.

"What are you doing?"

_"Searching."_

"For what?"

_"My prey."_

"Your what?"

The upper-level demon's eyes popped open, angry with the scavenger below him. "_You are asking too many questions."_ With a quick movement of his hands, a flash of light moved to the lower-level demon. Before he could scream, he was dead in a fountain of flames.

The upper-level demon closed his eyes again. They flew open.

_"My prey."_

- - -

It was a bright, early morning. The cars on the golden gate bridge were moving, flowing, at a nice smooth pace. The traffic was neither too heavy nor extremely light, but that was to be expected of the big city. The weather was perfect for the fall day, with hardly any clouds in the sky. Nothing seemed to be amiss at all.

Nobody even noticed the woman standing at the top of the golden gate bridge, ready to jump.

There was a look of determination on her face, not one of agony or depression as one would expect of most jumpers. She was a young looking woman with average height and build but with the beauty of a goddess. She was gorgeous and clothed in nothing but a simple white dress.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and whispered, "This is it…"

Before she could take the plunge, however, a man, dressed in all white as well, appeared out of nowhere. His appearance startled her into spinning in his direction, and he stared at her for a second before shaking his head in shame.

"Don't do this; we need you," he said.

"No you don't," she corrected, shaking her head. She was smiling, not at all ashamed of what she was planning. "There are plenty of others out there able to take my place. And if not… another can just be created. You know that. I know that."

"Still… don't do this," he pleaded.

And for a second she looked unsure. Then, she threw a look down at the lively highway and smiled in determination once more. She shook her head, turning her back to him once again. "I have to. My heart's calling out. I can't ignore that."

At that, she stepped off the edge.

"You know what will happen!" he yelled after her desperately, but she did not reply or could not. He continued to stare off into the blue sky and down into the San Francisco area for a moment before, in the blink of an eye, he was gone too.

Opening Credits Roll  
Theme Song: "Fallen Angels" by Aerosmith

--

Song: "Hanging By A Moment" by Lifehouse

It was a bright, early morning and the Golden Gate Bridge was as beautiful as ever.

Unfortunately, Chris didn't have the opportunity to notice this while he was on his way to his film class. He had heard countless times of how his father had fallen from Grace. He remembered the story of how he had landed safely and alive at the foot of the bridge, noticed and unnoticed by the drivers as they whizzed by him, some unable to take their eyes off of him, and some zooming to get away from the maniac that lived a suicidal plunge. Someone had evidently called the ambulance, but Leo Sr. only had one thing on his mind... Piper Halliwell, the mother of his children. He had avoided all questions, all authorities, at least until he knew his wife had lived.

Fortunately, Chris mused, his father had been able to keep on what clothes he had on underneath the Elder Robes that he wore (or so Chris had been told). The woman - well, _being_ - had not that opportunity. Her entire life involving magic was erased, along with the angelic dress she wore as she plunged to the earth. This also meant, unfortunately for the beautiful young woman, that she was more noticed than ignored as Chris's father had been blessed to be.

There was a screech as the first car that saw her came to a halt.

Chris automatically saw the impact that this would cause, and tried his best to propel the car forward, slowing to a stop rather than causing what would have been the Golden Gate's most significant and deadliest crash of that century. Slowly, more cars stopped, carefully, this time, and watched as the unknown woman fell quite gracefully to the ground. At least, what Chris would have assumed to be graceful, had it not been a plunge to get _away_ from Grace. It was hard not to use his powers to stop her knowing that she had to land on the ground with full impact for it to actually work.

When she landed, she laid there for a second, unsure of what to do next. Many people panicked and started to get out of their cars to help her. Many buttons were pushed in the cars, all emergency calls to the hospital, Chris guessed. He knew, without even knowing who she was, however, that she would probably cause quite a scene at the hospital. Acting on instinct, he jumped out of the car.

"Janine! What are doing here?!" he called out to her.

She would have no clue as to what he was talking about, but he hoped that a plea of amnesia would help the case. She looked up at him in confusion, just as he had guessed.

"What are you-?"

"Sorry, Ladies and Gentlemen, it's just my sister. She has had some trouble lately, and the fall has obviously caused some sort of amnesia. I'm going to take her to the hospital now, so go ahead and get in your cars and get back to driving. Thank you for your help, though."

Chris looked down to the girl and realized that she must have been freezing. The weather in San Francisco was constant, and the fall temperatures were normally in the 70s, if not 60s. Still, without clothes, those temperatures were less than welcoming.

"Here."

He handed her his over shirt, and proceeded to take her to his car.

"Why are you-?"

"No questions now. Not out in the open," Chris muttering, cutting her off as he did so. "You're also probably hungry and tired, both easily fixed, but not without my apartment. And we need to get you some clothes."

Luckily, this would be the first absence Chris had in this film class.

"Who are you-?"

"Didn't I say not now?" Chris hissed, opening the passenger car door and all but throwing her in. "There are too many people around, which will rouse too many questions. Let's just hope that nobody had a camera out while you were busy taking your dive."

He shut the door and jogged to the other car door before throwing himself in. He took a deep breath and pulled the car back into drive once more. Out of the corner of his eye, the woman was still staring at him. There was a moment of silence as Chris worked on weaving his way out of the onlooker traffic, hoping for the image of his car to be lost quickly to the curious eyes of the drivers.

"May I speak now?"

Chris glanced at the woman who appeared not the least bit worried that she was sitting mostly naked in his passenger seat. If he was being honest with himself, he would notice that the woman was very beautiful. She was tall and pale with long blond hair and bright blue eyes. The way she sat there made it appear as though she was almost glowing with an ethereal quality. He bit the inside of his cheek, wondering why he was stuck with the bad luck, before finally replying, "What?"

"First of all... thank you for back there. That was very kind of you. Second of all... I don't need your help! I can take care of myself! I don't even know who you are! You could be a demon for all I know!"

"Oh, good. So you know of demons," Chris said conversationally.

"Of course I know of demons," the girl snapped. "I know of everything! Of witches and warlocks and sorcerers and seers and whitelighters and darklighters and ghosts... the whole nine-yards."

"Good. Then you'll know who I am."

The girl stared at him. "Why's that?"

He turned to look at her as they finally got off the highway. "My mother was one of the Charmed Ones."

The girl's eyes widened. "Th-the Charmed Ones?"

"That's right," Chris nodded.

"_You're_ Wyatt Halliwell?"

Chris nearly slammed on the breaks. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he shook his head. Somehow, he was not surprised. "No," he answered shortly. "I'm Chris."

The girl blinked. "Who?"

He clenched his teeth. "Christopher," he bit out. She continued to stare at him blankly.

"I'm sorry, but I still don't-"

"His _brother_."

"_Oh_, you're one of the _other_ _ones_." Her voice concluded. After a final look at his face, she stopped speaking.

Chris could only repeat to himself, _I'm one of the good guys_, until they both made it, safe and alive, to the brothers' apartment.

"Look," the girl said after a long moment of silence, "I appreciate everything that you're doing for me - really, I do - but I can take care of myself! Halliwell or not, I don't need you to baby-sit me when-"

"We're here," Chris said, cutting her off as he parked the car.

For a moment, he simply sat in the parking lot staring up at his apartment building with a look of distaste. He had no idea how he was going to get this woman from his car up to his apartment without somebody noticing. After all, it was not everyday that he walked into his apartment complex without a shirt and a nearly naked woman following him. He could already hear the rumors flying.

"What?" the girl said, staring up at the building. "Where are we?"

"My apartment," he answered simply, glancing around at the empty parking lot. "Hold on; this may feel a little weird," he said, before reaching over to touch her arm as they both disappeared in a swirl of orbs.

They reappeared in the apartment in the same swirl of orbs.

"Oh!" the girl squealed as she lost her balance and toppled over onto the sofa.

Chris rolled his eyes, glancing around the apartment to find it empty as well. Great. He was going to have to deal with this alone.

"So," he began slowly, turning to look at the girl that was practically being swallowed by his far too large t-shirt. "You want to tell me who you are?"

- - -

"_Paging Orderly Halliwell, paging Orderly Halliwell. Come to the front desk, please."_

The intercom of the hospital was loud as Wyatt finished changing Mrs. Sneiderman's bedpan. Sure, it was a disgusting job, but if that was what it took to become a doctor, he'd do it. He sighed when he heard the message, though. Just an hour left to go before he had to leave, and there was another job for him.

"I'll be right back, Mrs. Sneiderman."

Wyatt winked as he left the room, knowing that the old woman would get a thrill out of it. Most of the old woman at the hospital were just old flirts and had special attractions toward the young doctors-in-training. Wyatt walked briskly toward the front desk, hoping that whatever task at hand would be a quick one, so he could get home and get to sleep. He was stuck with the early morning shift at the hospital this week, and with the demon hunt last night (he swore Chris was on a rampage), Wyatt was ready for a nice, relaxing, trip to dreamland.

"Hi, Linda. What do you have for me?" Wyatt asked the Nurse manning the front desk.

"Hey, Wyatt. You have a phone call."

Inwardly, Wyatt groaned. If there was a phone call, it was either one of his brothers or his mother, which usually meant there was a 'family emergency'.

"Do you know who it is?"

"He said his name is Leo."

Wyatt sighed deeply as he stepped behind the desk and picked up the phone. "Thanks," he murmured.

"Make it fast," she warned.

The blond gave her a look. "I'll try." He put the phone to his ear and the video feed came to life with Leo's uncertain face staring back up at him. Wyatt simply raised one eyebrow is question. "What do you want? I'm at work."

"_Wyatt._"

"What?"

"_Do you know anybody in San Francisco who I might be able to stay with?_"

The older brother frowned. "Your friends cop out on you?"

"_They copped out a few days ago... I was just hoping that another option would show itself._"

"I dunno, Leo... I haven't spoken to anybody from high school in years, save for DJ. Unless you want to stay with him?"

"_Hell no_." The dry look on his little brother's face almost made Wyatt laugh.

"Then I don't know what to tell you, little brother. All my other friends are from college and live all across the country... But you know you can stay with Chris and me. There's nothing hurrying you out."

"_Yes, there is_," Leo sighed. "_Chris_."

"Leo..." Wyatt began, but the video phone had already gone dark. He continued to stare at the phone in his hand for a second before slowly setting down the receiver and letting out a long drawn-out breath. Seeing Linda's curious look, he shrugged. "Family issues."

"You seem to have a lot of those," she mused.

"Comes with the name," he replied easily. Then, without giving her a chance to reply, he said, "What's next on my to-do list?"

Linda glanced down at her page of notes for second before giving him a sympathetic smile. He had to bite back a groan as he anticipated what was coming next. "It's Riley's turn to go on break. He needs you to cover for him down at the check-in desk in the ER."

"Great," Wyatt said sarcastically, "down to Hell I go."

"Remember, Halliwell," the nurse called after him. "Be nice."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered as he trudged over to the elevators that would send him down to the first floor where the ER was located.

If Wyatt had a choice, he would never work in the ER, but considering that he was only a med student, he was often tossed everywhere - ER included. It was not as though he ever got to help the trauma patients that would be rushed in from time to time; no, instead he had to deal with the walk-ins who were a bunch of impatient, unhappy people. No amount of charm could ever calm them down.

He walked into the ER room, flashing a smile at one of the harried-looking nurses behind the check-in desks, and was about to relieve Riley of his post - something that he looked quite grateful for - when the ER double-doors suddenly slammed open. A dozen real doctors immediately swarmed the gurney that had just been wheeled in. A middle-aged man lied on the gurney, burns covering his body, as the doctors proceeded to cut his clothing off his body as they rolled.

"Halliwell!" Dr Yates - one of the senior doctors who was balding and often was a guest speaker at the university - barked.

Wyatt's head snapped to attention, eyes wide. "Sir?"

"Follow. I want you to observe. This will be a good lesson for you." The doctor spoke even as he took the man's pulse rate.

"But I was just about to take Riley's post-"

"_Now_, Halliwell," he ordered before snapping a room number at the fellow doctors, who immediately began to wheel the man away.

"Yes, sir," Wyatt muttered, sounding rather whipped.

He felt no shame in it, though. He knew that Dr Yates spoke with his professors and vice versa - and the last thing he needed was a bad report on top of all of his absences. He offered a shrug of apology toward Riley who looked ready to throw himself into a ditch before jogging after the gurney.

- - -

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Chris said, pinching the bridge of his nose. A headache was coming on; he could feel it. "You were a higher-up angel. You have been an angel since the beginning of time until today when you decided to fall from grace and become a mortal so that you could... fall in love?"

The blond woman smiled and gave a proud not. "Right."

"Do you even know his name?"

Still smiling, she shrugged innocently. "Not a clue. I don't even know who _he_ is. But that's the mystery and fun of love, right? Trying to figure out who your true love is and all that."

Chris had to sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, listen, I'm going to give you some clothes and you can rest here, but then, we're going to take a trip to my aunt's."

"I'm going to meet a _Charmed One_?" There was a look of awe on her face as she stared at Chris. Then, she leaned back in her seat and got a thoughtful look upon her face. "Are they very bitchy?"

Chris's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "What!?" he snapped. "No!"

"Oh," she said, shrugging, and she almost sounded disappointment. "Oh well. I guess you can't believe everything you hear. Where are these clothes that you mentioned? I hope you don't expect me to wear the same thing as you."

An annoyed sigh that was almost a growl worked its way past the green-eyed witch's lips. "Come on."

He stood without looking to see if she was following and walked into Wyatt's room. Generally, he would avoid stepping into his older brother's domain. His brother, unlike himself, did not have much respect for cleanliness, and it was apparent the moment to stepped into the messy room. There was a pile of dirty laundry piling around the side of his bed, dirty dishes that he had sneaked into his room were cluttered on his desk among forgotten papers and open books, and empty beer bottles and pizza boxes littered the floor around the desk chair.

Deciding to remain perfectly blind to the mess that littered his brother's (disgusting) room, he made a beeline to the closet. The sudden sound of a huff of disgust told him that the angel had followed him into the room. He reached into the closet - which was almost scarily organized, Chris realized - and pulled out a cardboard box from the back.

Dumping it on the bed, he turned to the blond. "There's some clothes in here, pick what looks clean," he said walking past her and out of the room, leaving her alone to choose. "Wyatt won't mind."

If Chris had not known of his brother's frequent visits from women back when he was at college in the East, he might have wondered why his brother had a box of girls' clothing in his closet. As it was, they were mostly just souvenirs from the doctor-in-training's past encounters. Wyatt was a pack-rat and never threw anything away, and finally that annoying little trait that he had inherited from the Halliwell line came in handy.

The blonde ethereal being stood exactly where she was left for a minute or two after Chris had left the room. She surveyed the room that the witch had led her into with a scrutinizing eye. Was this how most males on earth lived? She sure hoped not. It certainly took some of the appeal out of love.

Scrunching her nose up, she carefully made her way to the foot of the bed before peering curiously into the box. There were piles of colorful pieces of cloth inside, most of which she had no idea what to do with. Pulling one particular confusing piece of clothing out that was covered in zippers, strings, and other material, she sighed. This was ridiculous.

She pulled Chris's shirt over her head and dropped it to the floor. Then, with an unhappy sigh, she began to go through each item of clothing in the box.

She had been in there, looking over each item of clothing indecisively, for almost thirty minutes before a knock on the door was heard.

"What's taking so long?" Chris asked through the door, unwilling to walk in on her naked... again.

"You try going from wearing the exact same thing every day since the beginning of eternity to suddenly being told to figure out mortal female fashion, and see how well you do," she snapped, grimacing toward the door where she knew he was standing. She heard him sigh and before he could speak, she added, "And no! I do not need your help!"

The distinct murmur of "Whatever" made its way to her ears as Chris walked away. She continued to glare at the door for a full minute afterward before finally sighing and turning back to the task at hand. This was starting to seem impossible.

The sound of calm jingling in the corner of the room caught her attention. She turned around just in time to see a cluster of blue orbs materialize together to form a man. He was tall, about a head taller than herself, and was wearing blue scrubs from head to toe. His back was to her, and he seemed completely unaware of her presence as he kicked off his shoes with a sigh and pulled the blue-hospital shirt over his head and threw it to the floor, leaving him barebacked.

Her eyebrows rose at the sight of his muscular shoulders and arms. She had seen naked men before, sure, but never a mortal man - and never this up close. She continued to watch as he stripped of the blue pants, leaving him in his boxers, and stepped into the closet, disappearing from her view for the time being.

The angel glanced around the room, uncertainly, wondering if she should step out or not - but before she could make a decision, the blond man stepped out of the closet, in the midst of buttoning up a pair of jeans, and looked up. His blue eyes widened at the sight of her completely naked, and for a second, he did not move. Then he gave strangled sort of shout, stumbled backwards, and, tripping over the scrubs he had just thrown to the floor, disappeared into the closet as he lost his footing.

She blinked.

"Um...are you ok?" She finally asked after a couple of disgruntled grunts came from the closet. She saw him attempt to get up again, but obviously the sight of her had left the poor man completely distracted, as he slipped on another piece of clothing that was left casually dirty on the less than noticeable floor.

"Fine, fine, I'm fine." He finally gave up on getting up, realizing that any more attempts would leave him completely useless. The angel started to walk toward him slowly, but before she could get within 3 feet of him, he stopped her. "Please, don't come any closer. Proximity to a naked woman while I'm in this state is not going to help me get up, trust me."

There was a bit of a pause as both parties stayed in their positions, unsure of what to do. Finally, after a moment, Wyatt yelled. "CHRIS?! LEO?!"

Chris was heard running to the bedroom.

"What- what is- Oh shit!"

Chris stumbled back a bit as he realized that the angel was still naked, and his brother was less than pleased.

"Would you mind explaining to me why there is a naked woman in my bedroom? I mean, it's not even my birthday."

Chris attempted to walk back into the room, shielding his eyes from the very prominent, detailed, nudity of the woman in front of him. He went straight to the box he knew was on the bed and picked up whatever clothing he could without looking. Shoving them in the angel's arms, he sent her out of the room, without any explanation to her or Wyatt.

"Just...find a way to put this on, in any way possible. But first- Wyatt, meet...what is your name?"

"There's a naked woman in your apartment and you don't know her name?!"

"Is that a crime?"

"No, I just didn't know you were becoming me."

"Whatever." Chris turned to the angelic being standing behind him. "Now, what's your name?"

"Hope."

Chris took a pause, disbelieving the name he thought he just heard. "Your name is Hope?"

"Yes."

"How original."

"Not really, there are about 10 up there."

Upon hearing the phrase, "Up there," Wyatt's ears perked up. Either she was out of state or she was _really_ out of state. "Up there?"

"Yeah, you know-" Before Hope could finish her sentence, she was quickly interrupted as Chris began to shoo her out of the room.

"Let me explain this, Hope. You go... get dressed. After we get you clothed, in whatever way possible, you're going to my Aunt." Chris ushered her into his room, afraid of whatever consequence that might follow if Leo happened to fall upon the naked body of an angel.

After she was gone, Wyatt was able to safely get up without any falls. "So, would you like to tell me about 'Up there?'"

- - -

After a long, irritating morning full of headaches, not just his own, Leo was back in the basement of Halliwell manor, training with Piper. Basically, she was either calmly telling him to blow something up, not a phrase that every teenage boy gets to hear from his mother, or she was telling him to block out the emotions of everyone in close proximity to him.

This one was the latter.

"Leo, honey, I know that you have two very strong powers that you can't really control inside you, but you need to let them go. Let everything go. Just sit down and concentrate. One emotion. Fear. Angry Fear."

It was the best that Piper could do to help Leo understand his trigger. The trigger for molecualr combustion, while a type of fear, was an angry fear. It was a fear for survival and a need for revenge. The trigger for the power to freeze was the fear connected to surprise and the fear connected to fleeing. Phoebe would have explained to him that it was connected to the "flight-or-fight" response, whatever that was. It was hard for the mind to be able to tell the difference at times, so unless the person knew the different emotions, then sometimes it got mixed up, and one wouldn't always get the result one wanted.

"Mom, can we take a break? I'm getting a headache."

A small sigh fell past Piper's lips as she stared as her youngest son, who was standing in the middle of the room with a pinched expression upon his face and sweat on his brow.

"Sure, honey," she said, gesturing toward him to come to her. "Let's go up to the kitchen and I'll make you something to eat."

"And how about some aspirin," he muttered, as he allowed his mother to lead him up the stairs.

"I think I can manage that," Piper said with a smile.

The light of the kitchen blinded him for a second before his eyes adjusted, and he made his way over to the kitchen table, releasing a loud sigh as he sank into the chair. Without lifting his head, he began to hear his mother shuffling around the kitchen, gathering dishes to make... something... He really did not care what it was; everything that Piper made was delicious.

A glass of water was set down in front of him, and he lifted his head to see two aspirin sitting beside the glass. He smiled in thanks before downing them both, hoping that they would work quickly. He had never attempted to control his empathy as much as he had today, not to mention trying to get a handle on his new power. There was a reason he had avoided all of this witchcraft stuff during high school - it was hard and a huge pain in the ass.

The shuffling in the kitchen had stopped a while ago, and Leo looked up to see his mother staring at him. Suddenly, he felt self-conscious as he squirmed slightly in his seat.

"What?"

"Nothing. How's living with your brothers going?"

"Could be better."

Leo could see the hesitation in his mother's eyes. He could tell she was itching to ask him to come back, but he knew that it was not the time. She seemed to have gotten that notion too, as she dried a glass that was still wet from the dishwasher. Ever since Leo could remember, the dishwashing technology was still left with the short end of the technologically enhanced stick.

"I'm...glad you agreed to training."

"Who else would I train with? Wyatt and Chris couldn't help me, and Aunt Phoebe is too busy helping people find love, and Aunt Paige has a lot of charges to worry about."

Piper smiled. "Thanks. You know how to make your mom feel good about herself."

While Leo felt that this was a joke, there was a pang in his heart as he also felt the tinge of sadness that his mother was feeling. Instead of bringing it up, like his loud-mouth self would normally do, he kept it shut, allowing her this secret.

- - -

"Where's the angel?" a slimy voice asked.

The voice belonged to a grotesque looking demon that was half crawling and half slithering across the floor of the Underworld's cavern. He was surrounded by several other demons, all of them staring up at the apparent leader who was hovering above them, apparently meditating.

"Where is she!?" the same voice persisted.

Calmly, the hovering demon opened his dark eyes before swiveling their gaze and capturing the slimy demon beneath his stare. "You are just as inquisitive as the last ingrate I got rid of."

With a flick of the wrist, the slimy demon was hit with a flash of light and swallowed by a ring of fire. The demons around him did not even flinch. Once the last ash had settled into the cavern's dirt-covered ground, the demon hovering overhead took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, his eyes shutting once more.

"She is surrounded by... _Charmed_ magic..." he whispered, but even as low as his voice was, it echoed off of the earthen walls.

The demons below him bristled unhappily.

One brave one spoke up. "The Charmed Ones?" he spat out, disgusted.

"No," the cloaked demon said. "It's diluted... thinned..."

"The family, then," the same brave demon concluded.

A sinister grin broke out across the hovering demon's face as his eyes opened once more. "The offspring."

- - -

Arriving at Aunt Phoebe's was like arriving at The Guru's house of relationships. It was so warm and inviting, and there were so many depictions of happiness on the walls. It wasn't the perfect place, but it was... a refuge. Ever since any of the boys could remember, Uncle Coop and Aunt Phoebe just... didn't fight.

Of course, their cousins made up for their parent's lack of yelling by constantly fighting over the most idiotic things. "That was my boyfriend!" and "Put my diary down!" and "Give me my doll!" were constantly heard phrases that Wyatt and Chris never had to get used to, a fact that they thanked their mother for after each visit. The girls took after their own mother though, at least from what they were told. Each was given martial arts training and the two oldest were up to their black belts by the time they were thirteen and each had started kickboxing at twelve.

Ladybug, Prudence, was the oldest, and was leaving high school this year. She was seventeen, and by far the most skilled and had the most attitude. With Patty, Firefly, falling behind her as a freshman in high school, the sibling rivalry was beginning to show. Prue was, like her namesake, the cheerleader with the best boyfriends. Aunt Phoebe continued to show her support for her middle child as secretly as she could though, knowing the feeling of being left behind by her older, more sophisticated sister. That left Penny, the youngest of the girls, being nine years old. She still had that air of innocence that neither of her sisters had really accomplished, and she used that to her advantage when it came to getting into trouble. Her curiosity was a burden to both of her sisters, which was where the phrase "Put my diary down!" came into play most often.

Everywhere that they looked, there was evidence left of each of the three girls. Book bags, purses, and forgotten textbooks were strewn across the meticulously decorated living area. A dark leather sofa sat on top of an earth toned rug. A furnished coffee table was the victim of most of the books and homework that the girls had discarded on their way in from school, and the TC (telecomputer) that sat on the cabinet across from the sofa was muted but on, blaring some cartoon. There was artwork on the walls mixed in with the numerous amounts of family photos and childish drawings that were hiding the wall away from every angle. If the boys did not know better, they would have assumed that an interior decorator and a nine year old had collaborated to make the place home - and in a way, considering their Aunt Phobe's and Uncle Coop's taste, they had.

As Wyatt, Chris, and Hope walked into the house of their Aunt, little Bumblebee greeted them first.

"_WYATT_! _CHRIS_!" She screamed as she ran down the hallway of the front entrance. Penny never did have the grace of being subtle - or the act of being cautious, as she made a flying leap through the air toward her cousins. Only Wyatt's quick reflexes saved the nine-year-old from face planting into the carpeted floor, even as he stumbled beneath sixty pounds of dead weight.

"Hey, squirt," Wyatt grunted, temporarily winded as he carefully set the sporty brunette back down.

Chris, with a laugh on his lips, mussed up the girl's hair. "Hey, Penny. How've you been?"

"Great!" the energetic half-cupid exclaimed. "I got onto the soccer team!"

Wyatt grinned like a kid in a candy store. "No way!" he exclaimed as Penny nodded enthusiastically, grinning just as widely. "Give me a high-five, girl!"

"Yeah!" she cheered, slapping Wyatt's outstretched hand as hard as she could.

Chris snorted lightly, earning a small glare from his older brother, before he cleared his throat and caught the nine-year-old's attention. "Penny, where's your mom?"

"In her office," she answered, immediately.

"Can you go get her for us, please?" he asked, gently.

Bumblebee pouted for a second, put down by the fact that she was being sent away, before she gave a hefty sigh. "O-_kay_," she mumbled, before turning on her heel and marching out of the room.

Ladybug entered not a second later, cleaning out a few dishes.

"What? No magic spell to clean those dishes for you, your majesty?" Chris asked, playfully, knowing that she had very recently received a large lecture about the importance of personal gain and how it is a part of magic that is not to be reckoned with, no matter how much she needed to pass Calculus, which she would learn to do the mortal way.

"Well, if it isn't the wonderful Twice-Blessed Child... and his younger brother, the asshole."

"Ouch, you know, one of these days you are really going to hurt me, Prudence, and then where will you be?"

"Happy."

"Hey, I don't know how I feel about you teasing my little brother." Wyatt intervened on his brother's behalf, before both parties started a war between each other. Not a World War IV sized war, but big enough to maybe leave Aunt Phoebe without a house.

"Well, how do you feel about him teasing me?" Prue may not have captured the same high quality air of innocence as her baby sister had, but she certainly had gained a knack for it.

"Good point." Wyatt and Prue shared a welcoming family-issued hug that was normal on all family occasions. "How's school?"

"Could be better, but isn't that how every senior feels?"

Chris couldn't help answering. "No."

"Shut up. _You_ actually liked high school." Prue took a pause before calling him a, "Jerk," for good measure.

"Bitch."

"Ass-"

"Watch your mouth young lady." Aunt Phoebe entered the room, provoked by Penny. Prue's mouth immediately zipped shut, and she left to go back to the kitchen, to finish her mortal chores. "Now, then, what's up with you two?" She hugged both of her nephews and then noticed the woman behind them. "Hello, who are you?"

"Oh, hi! I'm Hope."

Phoebe smiled, grasping the blond girl's hand. "Hello, Hope. I'm Phoebe Halliwell." She paused for a second before turning a rather interested eye toward the boys. "Are you one of Wyatt or Chris's... _friends_?"

The smiles on both boys' faces dropped immediately. "No! Not me-"

"Just met her today-"

"-only an innocent-"

"-Chris's innocent to be precise-"

"-didn't know we were assigning innocents-"

"-not a _friend_. Barely just met her-"

"-I found her on the highway-"

"-brought her to our apartment to help her-"

"-was just using Wyatt's bedroom to change-"

"-don't say that like there were ulterior reasons behind it-"

"-just stating the facts. She was naked-"

"-that wasn't my fault-"

"Okay!" Phoebe called out loudly, laughter in her eyes. "Guys, I was kidding! Calm down. Jeesh. I can tell that neither of you are in a relationship with this girl. After twenty-five years, I think I know what a couple walking into my house looks like."

Hope, grinning at the boys' expense, turned toward Phoebe with a smile. She was going to get along with this woman; she could tell. For their part, both Wyatt and Chris, though each a little red in embarrassment, were able to keep their humiliation down to a minimal as Phoebe - in normal Phoebe style - gently lead the girl over to the sofa.

"What seems to be the problem?"

The blond angel looked over her shoulder at Chris with a raised eyebrow as she sat down as though to say 'See? This is how you treat a woman you're trying to help.' Chris simply rolled his eyes, deciding to remain standing next to Wyatt, as the mysterious girl went into her tale for the second time that day with Phoebe listening enthralled.

Wyatt turned away from the chatting girls and whispered into the air, "Uncle Coop?"

Chris looked at his brother in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Calling for Uncle Coop. What does it sound like?" he said. "Uncle Coop? Uncle-"

A red swirling light took the shape of a heart before quickly forming into the body of their Uncle Coop.

"Wyatt?" the cupid asked with a raised eyebrow. "Chris? What's up?"

"We needed to ask you a favor..." Wyatt began slowly.

"There's this innocent," Chris butt in as he caught on to where Wyatt was headed with this, pointing over his shoulder vaguely toward Phoebe and Hope, "who is an angel who fell from grace in order to find her true love, and now we need to find him. Can you help us out?"

"Chris, I can't."

"You can't?" Wyatt repeated.

"I can't," Coop said, shaking his head. "If what you said is true and she's an angel... then I can't involve myself in her love affairs. It's strictly against the rules."

"Uncle Coop, she fell from grace! So, technically, she's no longer an angel... she's mortal now!" Chris pointed out.

"And besides," Wyatt added, "you're a Cupid married to a Charmed One. Chris and I are the result of a whitelighter and a Charmed one - _your_ brother and sister-in-law - getting married. Since when do _you_ follow the rules?"

Coop gave a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Guys..."

"Look," the blond witch interrupted, "you don't even have to plant thoughts into the guy's head to persuade him. All we want is for you to find him!"

"Yeah, just think of her as another charge among many - or, better yet, think of _him_ as a charge that you're trying to find," Chris said, crossing his arms over his chest, confidently.

The look on Uncle Coop's face told them that they had won before the older man even had to open his mouth. Seeing the triumphant smirks on both of the young men's faces, Coop shook his head sadly, realizing that he had lost.

"So, I guess you plan to just leave her with us, then?"

There was a pause before both men nodded.

"Pretty much."

"Yeah."

The cupid looked over at the young woman conversing with his wife for a second before turning to look at his nephews and then down to his ring. He frowned slightly.

"What?" Wyatt asked, seeing the look.

"Neither of you are her true love," he said.

"Thank God," Chris muttered.

"Unfortunate," Coop continued with a sigh. "Would have made my job easy."

"Our job is never easy," Wyatt said, and the other two grunted in agreement.

- - -

After a long and exhausting day, Leo didn't find it very difficult to get "home" and fall asleep at his designated bedroom in Chris' (he still cringed at the thought) apartment. He felt the frustration that his elder brother felt as he continued to take advantage of his family, having not found any of his crackhead or deadbeat friends. Laughing to himself, Leo almost always failed to realize that anyone he refers to as "crackheads" or "deadbeats" weren't really his friends.

_Oh well,_ Leo thought. _Crackheads are better than nothing._

He remembered that not too long ago he would have thought, _Crackheads are better than brothers_. He wasn't so sure now.

But even with his problems with Chris lately, a bed was a bed, and Leo was going to enjoy it as long as he had one. He was just starting to drift off into dreamland when the faintest sound of movement from the living room reached his ears.

His eyes snapped open.

He had been part of the Halliwell family long enough to be able to discern the different types of sound that a house makes, and the quiet pats of footfalls outside a door was one of the most dreaded sounds of his old childhood home. He forced himself to slow his breathing to an almost inaudible level as he gently pushed himself back up into a sitting position. His feet touched the floor, and he froze as rummaging was heard.

_In the kitchen_, he thought quickly.

His fingers twitched in anticipation as he slowly stood and quietly traveled to the bedroom door to hear the activities of the invading demon more closely. He could only hear one movement, which meant that he was probably alone. Good. It would be easier to get rid of that way - unless it was the Source in his brother's kitchen, which, knowing their luck, it could very well be.

Bracing himself for whatever fight was about to break out, he threw open the bedroom door and aimed for the approximate area that he had heard the demon as he flicked his wrist. Unfortunately, he did all this before he really took in what he was seeing, but luckily, he had missed and the cereal box on top of the fridge exploded on Derek's head.

The half-manticore cried out, startled, as he banged his head on the open fridge door, a bottle of beer in hand. He spun toward Leo with an accusatory glance. "What the hell!?" he snapped.

"What do you think you're doing?" the youngest brother Halliwell asked, not at all remorseful at having almost blown up his brother's best friend. He was more upset at the fact that he had gotten up because of this jerk and at the fact that he was going to have to clean up the cereal later. What a pain.

Still pinning Leo with a glare, DJ answered, "Looking for Wyatt."

An unconvinced eyebrow rose. "In the fridge?"

Derek barely contained an annoyed growl. "No, dickhead. I was grabbing a beer," he brandished it in his hand as though he expected Leo to be blind, "while I waited for him since he's obviously not here."

Leo sent a longing look back toward the bed. He was still tired, but the adrenaline from before was still pumping through his veins and he realized it would probably be another half hour before he would be able to lie down and sleep again. Letting out a long-suffering sigh, he crossed the apartment floor toward the kitchen to grab a soda. He popped the can open and was about to take a swig of it when DJ slammed the bottle of beer down onto the kitchen table.

"Somebody's not in a good mood," he muttered, not caring very much as he drunk from his can.

"Yeah, well, I didn't have a good morning, and it's turning out to be a very bad afternoon," he grumbled, unhappily. He went to take another drink from his beer when he stopped halfway there. "What was with trying to blow me up anyway, huh?"

"I thought you were a demon!" Leo said defensively.

DJ gave him a look.

"An evil one," he elaborated.

Derek shook his head, opting not to say anything as he drunk from his beer. Leo followed his example as he silently drunk from his can as well. The two of them had never really gotten along very well, so it was not that much of a surprise that there was really nothing really to say between them when stuck in the same room together. In fact, the last time that Leo was stuck alone with DJ was probably the half-demon's eighteenth birthday when Chris and Wyatt had convinced Leo to distract DJ long enough for them to get the surprise party ready. That had been just as awkward as this was.

"Goddamnit," Derek cursed suddenly causing Leo to turn his attention to him once again. "Where is Wyatt!?"

Leo shrugged in reply.

The half-manticore glanced up at the clock. "My shift starts in thirty minutes. I've got to go... Shitface, can you listen for once and tell Wyatt something for me?"

The hazel-eyed boy glared in response.

Derek continued, though, without waiting for a response. "I was down in the Underworld this morning, and there's some rumor about a rogue angel walking around San Francisco. The demons want to get to her before she fulfills... whatever it is that she needs to fulfill in order to turn mortal. Apparently, if the demons get to her before we do... Well, let's just say it's not a good day for the good guys."

"So, you want Wyatt to find this angel and protect her?" he guessed.

"Yeah. He's good at that sort of thing. He's like... the modern day secret service. Pass it on?"

"Yeah, sure," Leo promised. It wasn't like he could keep it from his brother; he wouldn't risk an innocent's life like that.

"Good." He let out a satisfied sigh as he finished his beer and tossed the empty bottle in the trash. He then grinned at Leo. "See you, Fonzie." Then, he shimmered away.

"Bastard," Leo called after him into the empty air.

- - -

Patty was just getting out of a rehearsal. She was exhausted, having just taken on the role of an Assistant Stage Manager for the first time in her life. She appreciated the job. She had always loved the theatre and seeing shows, but she never thought she had the knack for portraying characters. Maybe it was because her family life was just too out there to be found in any play or telecomp show. She enjoyed being behind the scenes, working on blocking and making sure the director got what he wanted for his show. The ASM (assistant stage manager) was in charge of making sure that the actor's knew their lines, that the director's wishes were fulfilled. She took care of when the light cues were supposed to be, what kind of set pieces were needed, where things would go. She was in charge of set changes in between acts and scenes; she was in charge of making sure the actors were quiet when they weren't on stage. Basically, she was in charge of making sure the production went as smoothly as possible.

Being a freshmen, she was quite lucky to have this job in the first place. Most freshmen weren't even allowed to go near the productions unless they were chorus members, but with the advertisements for sports rising as the country tried to reach its new goal of "Healthiest Country in the World", drama, unfortunately, went on ignored. So, she just continued on with her third rehearsal._ Legally Blonde the Musical_ was a typical musical, performed everywhere since the revival stopped being performed on Broadway. Patty saw the show live a few times, thanks to her orbing cousins and their trips around the world.

Patty walked outside of the school and waited for her mom to pick her up in the front as always. Her friends had already left because Patty was forced to stay after to speak to the director. So was the life of the ASM. Her mom was usually there to pick her up right after rehearsal, but this time she seemed to be running late. Patty got out of rehearsal at 5:45, and now it was almost 6 o'clock.

It was mid-fall, and it was starting to get cold in San Francisco. A chill ran through the air. Now Patty was really beginning to worry. Patty looked around her and started to realize that she was alone, which was strange because the school usually didn't clear out this early.

Patty heard a shimmer from behind her. She tensed up immediately. The demon snuck in behind her, but she was ready for the attack. Until, that is, the demon's icy fingers covered her eyes. She broke out into a fit of giggles.

"Come on, DJ! You can't pull this trick _every time _you visit! Now where's Wy?"

The demon chuckled too. Patty didn't recognize that chuckle. It was as cold as his fingers and somehow sounded malicious.

"I am not DJ, little girl, but you _are_ a Halliwell child."

Patty wasn't ready for the demon to pull that kind of move. Her scream wasn't heard as she was shimmered from sight.

- - -

Leo was just starting to have such a nice dream when he heard the sound of the front door opening from the living room. After DJ's departure, Leo had settled himself down at the kitchen table with his soda in front of him. He sipped away at it, willing the caffeine to boost him with some energy, but after the initial adrenaline rush from Derek, all he wanted to do was lie down and sleep. As a kid, he had never been the one that had gotten hyper off of a can of soda. That sort of behavior was left up to Wyatt and Chris... not that the dignified middle son would ever admit to being "hyper" off of a can of soda.

It was only natural, then, with such a heavy tiredness weighing upon him that his head would somehow find the tabletop as he slowly drifted off into dreamland. He never quite got there, though, much to his annoyance, as Wyatt's arrival interrupted any chance he got to catch some shut eye. Generally, he would just ignore his elder brother and continue to sleep, but there was a nagging in the back of his brain that told him to relay the information pronto, and while Leo was not the clairvoyant one of the brothers, his mother had always strained how important their instincts were.

"Wyatt?" he called sleepily, clumsily getting to his feet and somehow making it to the doorway to the living room.

"Yeah?" the blond looked up from the remote he had just retrieved from the coffee table with a half-interested expression.

"DJ came by. He wanted to tell you about some angel wandering around..."

Wyatt blinked at him. "Word gets around fast. Yeah, I know about the angel. Thanks, Leo."

To say that he had been expecting that response would have been a lie. The youngest male Halliwell stared at his brother in surprise for a second before blinking. "Oh. Well then, where is she?"

"At Aunt Phoebe's house," he explained easily, dropping down onto the couch as he propped his feet up on the coffee table. Chris would kill him if he saw him doing that.

A single eyebrow raised at that comment. "Aunt Phoebe's house? Why is she there? Shouldn't you be protecting her from the demons?"

Wyatt's head snapped toward him so fast that Leo was surprised that his brother didn't get whiplash. "Demons?" he snapped, eyes wide. "What demons?"

- - -

Chris was still at his Aunt's house. At some point in the past, when Wyatt and he first started living and fighting demons together, they decided that one brother wouldn't travel while the other one is traveling. Nobody wants to be called for an orb while they're driving. It's dangerous.

Well, Chris made the decision. Wyatt sometimes chose to abide by it.

So, while Chris waited for Wyatt's call to let him know he was out of the car, Chris was stuck at Aunt Phoebe's.

Hope was talking to Aunt Phoebe about how she made her decision to give up the life of an angel to search for love. Uncle Coop was investigating, trying to help the angel out to the best of his abilities. Anything to get her out of Chris' hair._ Is it bad to wish majestic beings gone for good?_

Penny walked in, curious as to what her older cousin was up to.

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Thinking," Chris stated as he lifted her up into his lap. Everytime he saw Penny, he usually felt inclined to pick her up, to take care of her innocence and make sure she would never have to deal with demons in the future. Whenever he read the _Book of Shadows, _he realized exactly what his mother felt.

"Abooooooooout?"

"Hope."

"She's really pretty, dontcha think?"

"Ummm...sure..." Chris tried to push the subject aside, but Bumblebee, like her Mom, never dropped a subject if someone else wanted to.

"What is she?"

"Huh?"

"Well, she's magical, right? I mean, no one could be _that_ beautiful without being magical."

"You know-"

Whatever Chris was going to say on the subject was cut off by Phoebe suddenly barreling through the kitchen, lunging for her purse on the counter as she did so. Chris looked up, alarmed.

"Wha-?"

"I forgot to pick up Patty! Shit. Damnit! Where are my keys!? Damn, damn, damn-- Penny!" Phoebe squeaked, suddenly stopping in her tirade as she caught sight of her youngest. She put on a slightly embarrassed face as she rushed over to the nine-year-old and kissed her forehead. "You forget everything Mommy just said, okay?"

"_Mom_," she whined. "I'm not six, y'know! Besides, Wyatt cusses in front of me all the time."

Phoebe's eyebrows rose. "Oh, does he now? That boy is in so much trouble."

Penny winced. "Oops?"

Chris just grinned.

"Anyway, I gotta go. I was supposed to have left almost an hour ago-"

"Alright, I'll come too." Chris announced suddenly, jumping to his feet.

Phoebe raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You will?"

"Yeah, sure. Better than hanging around here, anyway."

He gave a slight pleading look to his aunt. Phoebe sighed in defeat. "Alright, c'mon. I'll get you away from your beautiful charge, if that's what you want so badly!" Chris gave a sheepish look that was not completely sincere as he followed Phoebe out of the room. The elder witch stopped at the doorway to say to her youngest, "Prue's in charge," before they both walked out.

Penny made a whiny face at that. She sat at the table for a few moments in silence, swinging her legs back and forth, and listened to her sister in the other room, whining about the laundry. The little nine-year-old was lucky! She wasn't tall enough to do the hardest chores! A few seconds later, she listened to her mother's car start up, pull out, and drive away. There was a pause. Then, the almost silence was broken by the sound of jingling orbs, and she looked up to see two of her cousins orbing into the room.

"Wy! You're back!" she grinned, jumping off the chair.

"Yeah, I am." He grinned. "You know I can never stay away from you for long, princess."

"That's 'cause I'm the favorite," she beamed.

Leo raised an eyebrow at that. "Cheeky brat."

Her mouth fell open before looking to Wyatt in pain. "Wyatt!"

"Leo, that wasn't very nice," Wyatt said for Penny.

Leo just gave his brother a dry look before looking around the room. "Where's Chris?"

"He left with Mom to go pick up Patty. She _forgot_," she said in an almost hushed whisper, as though it was a top secret.

"Alright. Well, when she gets back, tell her that we're taking Hope back to our place. Some demon stuff have come up that we need to deal with."

"Ooh! Can I help?" Penny quipped.

"No," both brothers deadpanned before disappearing into the living room to collect their charge.

- - -

Phoebe and Chris drove into the school roundabout. At first glance, it looked as if no one was at school anymore, but as Chris looked closer, he realized that most of them were inside waiting for their prospective rides after practices were over. _Probably to get out of the line of the wind, _he thought. It did seem to be stronger around the school building.

After a couple of minutes, Patty still hadn't shown her face. Phoebe frowned uncharacteristically and pulled out her video phone.

"Patty," she said into the mic.

"Now calling, Patty." A generic voice drifted over the phone. Chris watched as it rang five times, and then went to video mail. Patty's face popped up on the screen.

"Hi, this is Patty. I'm really glad you called, but I'm probably at a rehearsal. Come see the show in October! But, anyways, just make sure I see your face, okay? And I'll get back to you. And if this is mom, I need to say that I am not a baby and I'll call when rehearsal is over. I promise."

Phoebe called again. This time, it went to video mail after only four rings.

"Patty, honey, call me back ok? I'm waiting outside."

After Phoebe's third call back, she turned to Chris for help.

"Chris, can you-?"

"Sense her?"

"Yes. I know I'm probably worrying over nothing, but something doesn't feel right."

Chris concentrated on Firefly's essence. He knew it the best, probably, because they both had "middle child syndrome," the victim's of being most neglected, unfortunately. Firefly, while not the trouble maker, was most apt to finding ways to get the attention put on her, at least for a moment. While Chris did not mind the trust he received, and the least amount of worry he caused his parents, Firefly was cursed with having her mother's personality _and_ middle child syndrome, which can be a lethal combination. Chris was around more than enough times when she happened to have found secret passageways in the Halliwell Manor and her own home.

Chris' concentration did not seem to be on top of things today, however. Patty was nowhere to be found.

Phoebe looked at Chris and immediately climbed out of the car and went inside the school.

Chris watched as she talked to one of the students. He also watched her fall apart.

Phoebe ran back to the car. Her face told him everything he needed to know, but she still told him, "Some man took her. They thought I sent him. Move over. You drive. I'm going to work on getting a premonition on who this asshole was." Her eyes were watery with worry but her voice was determined. Generally, Phoebe Halliwell was a pretty complacent woman, but if somebody messed with her girls, they had better watch out. It was times like this that Chris got glimpses of the reality behind that statement.

- - -

Patty struggled with all her might against the bonds that held her in her place. Her face was sweaty with exhaustion and her hair had long since fallen out of her ponytail, but she would not give up without a fight. The cavern that she was being held in was large but dark, with only a single flaming torch giving her light. She was pinned against the walls of the cave, her arms stretched high above her in an iron clasp. She screamed in frustration, kicking with all her might.

"It's useless," a silky voice said from the shadows.

Patty froze immediately, her chest still heaving with her heavy breathing. Slowly, the demon behind the voice strode out of the darkness. He grinned sickly up at her, his dark features accenting the shadows that lined his face.

"Who are you?" Patty asked, only the slightest tremor in her voice betraying her fear.

"Oh. How very rude of me!" His voice was like silk and it sent shivers of fright up the teenager's spine. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Laraje." He grinned as though that was supposed to mean something.

It didn't.

"Look, buddy. If you think you are the only demon to ever come up with the idea to kidnap a Charmed One's kid, then you'd be wrong. This isn't an original plot, just so you know." There was bite in her words, despite her fear.

The demon simply chuckled, as though he found her words amusing. From beyond the darkness, she could hear other chuckles, rising up, sinister, threatening. She was outnumbered _and_ restrained.

"Poor, disgusting, human child. I do not want a Charmed One, I want _an angel._"

"I don't see very many of those flying around, so, if you'll just let me go..."

Her restraints only go tighter, much to her dismay. "Even if you aren't the one with the angel, the others will follow. This may not be an original plot, but it does get me what I want."

- - -

"Okay, so I've got the demon who took her."

Chris glanced over at his aunt surprised. "Already?"

"Well, honey, I have been doing this for quite a few years." Phoebe smiled.

He glowered out at the street as he continued to drive. There was a moment of silence that was quickly interrupted by a thunder of jingles. Chris looked up, his scowl deepening.

"Uh, I'm driving here!"

Phoebe shot him a confused look.

- - -

Little Leo looked up as Wyatt sighed in annoyance. Hope from beside him continued to look half-confused and half-amused.

"Driving!" Wyatt growled out. "Why are you driving!? _I_ have the car!"

- - -

"Becuase I damn well feel like it!" Chris snapped. "Got a problem, princess?"

Phoebe continued to look confused, but still felt the need to intercede, "Watch your language mister!"

"Ugh..."

- - -

Wyatt threw up his hands in disgust, "Yeah I got a problem! What the hell are you doing?! There's a _family emergency!_"

Leo looked on at his brother's emphatic gestures, followed by more incessant jingling. "What's he saying? What's he _saying? Why can't I hear this!_"

Leo, unfortunately, was gifted with empathy. Wyatt's anger flooded through Leo Jr., as the power of molecular combustion also flooded through him. He had no control over his own powers.

Nearby, a backpack exploded.

Prudence ran into the living room from the kitchen, "Hey! That's my back-thanks, Leo," and promptly went back into the kitchen to continue her cleaning.

Wyatt groaned.

- - -

"Yeah there's a _family emergency! _Patty was _kidnapped_ by a _DEMON!_"

- - -

At this, Wyatt promptly flew into a rage.

"Calm down! I don't want to blow up Aunt Phoebe's house! What the _hell _happened?!" Leo screamed at himself to keep under control as he continued to channel his brother's anger.

Wyatt barked out, "Patty's been kidnapped by a demon..." His fists were shaking from rage as he kept them by his side.

"WHAT?!" Leo Jr.'s hand flicked out automatically. Fortunately, nothing happened this time.

"I didn't blow anything up... I didn't blow anything up... the angel's frozen... but I didn't blow anything up."

"Good...good, Leo. That's very good," Wyatt congratulated his brother, shakily.

- - -

Chris and Phoebe arrived at her house as soon as they could. Both Chris and Wyatt were steaming, neither willing to talk to each other. Leo was in very new territory, his brothers' anger was affecting him a little, but his own anger over-shadowed their own. His empathy wasn't needed here.

"What the hell is going on?!" Leo screamed. "What do you mean Patty has been kidnapped? Where the fuck is this demon?! Let's go! _Now_. Why are you all just standing around here?! There's a demon with _my_ little cousin! _Start moving!_" Leo barked incessantly at his family, who all looked shocked to see the sarcastic little boy Halliwell get so emotional.

Leo looked shaky. The other two Halliwell brothers froze wary of the next object that was bound to explode.

"Oh, calm down, I can control my own damn power."

"Yeah, as of... five minutes ago." Wyatt responded, still on the lookout for glass objects nearby.

"Speaking of powers," Phoebe interjected suddenly, looking as pale as Leo felt, "let's orb. Now, boys. It's Book of Shadows time."

"No, wait, there's no point," Chris said easily, stepping in front of her as she attempted to make a beeline toward Wyatt. "Just send your premonition to me."

"Chris, it will be much faster to just--"

"Trust me. Just send it!" He held out both of his hand imploringly.

She stared at them for a second before letting a small sigh to fall past her lips. "Alright." With that, she grabbed her nephew's hands, and her eyes slid closed. A moment later, both precogs tensed up as the scene passed between them.

The moment that Chris opened his eyes, Wyatt was on him. "Well? What did you see?"

"Damn it, I should have known! I can't believe I didn't realize-"

Leo interjected, "Realize what? What are you talking about?"

"His name is Laraje. He's a demonic tracker that works for the demon market; one of the high end kinds. He rgathers immortal entities that fell from grace and hands them over to his boss who makes them slaves until they can become soldiers. It looks like Laraje went on a rampage to find Hope." Chris looked at Hope. Hope looked up, a little guilty. "It's not your fault, it's just-"

"Can you stop apologizing to the damn angel and tell us what the hell you're going on about?!" Leo clenched his fists, he was getting angry. A mirror shook nearby before settling down once more.

"Okay, okay, I'm getting there. He's kind of powerful; we need a spell _and_ a potion to kill this guy. The potion needs agrimony, horehound, rosemary, and some salt. There's a spell to go with it, and I remember that as well."

Phoebe and Leo stared at him with their jaws dropped.

"Do we have all of the ingredients needed?" Wyatt interrupted, sounding none too surprised by what Chris had just said.

"Yeah. It's all stuff we have stocked up on, and even if we don't, Mom definitely does."

"Sounds good," Wyatt nodded. "Let's do it then."

"Wait a minute!" Phoebe jumped in, looking baffled if not a bit frazzled. She turned her stare onto Chris. "How the hell do you know all of that, mister!"

Chris grinned sheepishly, and Wyatt held back a chuckle. "I, uh," Chris said with a slight shrug, "used to give myself Book of Shadows homework."

Leo snorted.

"Really?" Phoebe asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Really," Wyatt answered with a grin. "I'm witness."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Whatever. That's not important now. Look, we need the ingredients for the potion. Leo, can you-?"

"On it."

"Good. And, Wyatt, can you get some paper and pen? I'm going to recite the spell-"

"And you want me to write it down for you? No problem, little brother."

Chris turned to his aunt last with a calm smile. "Don't worry, Aunt Phoebe. Everything's going to be fine. We've got this covered."

Phoebe smiled shakily back at her nephew. "So it seems."

- - -

Leo was in a hurry to leave. He couldn't stand waiting so long. What the hell was taking Chris so long to find that bastard?! Not knowing whether Patty was alive or not was one of the most terrifying things the rebel could think of, and since he had already finished the potion, he finally had time to think about it.

It had only been 10 minutes since Chris recited the spell over the potion, reinforcing the potion so that they knew for sure it would work. This particular demon needed the extra power. Leo wasn't too sure on the technical stuff, but he knew that any demon that needed both a potion and a spell was probably a major pain in the ass.

And a major threat to his cousin. Does it really take ten minutes to find a demon in San Francisco?!

Aunt Phoebe, on the other hand, was oddly calm. Whether she had a premonition that she was fine, or Phoebe's own odd sixth sense had kicked in through all the panic, Leo would never know.

"Leo, come sit next to me."

Leo looked at her oddly but obliged her. In his family, there really would be no use in arguing or questioning.

"Now, just let my feelings wash over you. Just concentrate on me." Phoebe took a hold of his hand, to further the empathic connection.

"How can you be so calm?"

"Just instinct, darling." Phoebe smiled while Leo relaxed. "After almost thirty years of doing this, you learn when to listen."

"Thirty years, huh?" he murmured, diverting his eyes to the floor. Thirty years of nothing but damn demon fighting and worrying and having to learn to listen to one's instincts. Sounded like a pretty crappy life to him, but he didn't say anything.

Phoebe, guessing accurately what he was thinking, squeezed his hand with a small reassuring smile. "You get used to it."

He wanted to say something along the lines of '_why should I want to?_' or '_why should I have to?_', but Chris was suddenly sticking his head into the room with a slightly impatient look on his face. He raised a single eyebrow at the youngest Halliwell brother and said, "You coming?"

Leo jumped to his feet instantly. "Yeah!"

He caught his Aunt Phoebe looking at him with a knowing look, and he held back a scowl. This was personal. This involved family. This wasn't some demon fighting franchise that he was starting. He didn't want that kind of life.

Without another thought, he followed Chris into the other room.

No, this was a one time thing.

- - -

The moment that the blue orbs dissipated, it was obvious that Chris had taken them to the right place. In fact, it was so right that the three brothers found themselves in the middle of a pack of demons. The only reason that they weren't dead yet was because they were just as bemused as the brothers were.

Wyatt was the first to recover. "_Chris!_"

Chris with the perfect '_oh shit_' look plastered on his face managed to blurt out a, "Sorry!" before sending the closest ten demons flying.

"See?" Leo seethed, raising his hands to blow up the closest demon. "This is what you get for always being _perfect_."

The middle child looked as though he was about to respond with a snippy reply, but then he froze. Green eyes pinned on a hovering demon halfway across the room, his face shifted into a glare. "There he is," he said lowly.

Wyatt turned to look, a growl working its way in the back of his throat. Leo, however, was looking past the demon. There, chained to the wall, was Patty. He only stared for a moment before he was leaping into the crowd of demons, pushing his way towards his cousin. Both Chris and Wyatt startled out of their hatred to call after him, horrified.

"LEO!" Wyatt bellowed.

"Leo, you get your ass back here!" Chris snapped, throwing several demons aside to punctuate the statement.

Little Leo listened to neither.

Frustrated, Wyatt conjured an athame, stabbed the closest demon in the face with it, before turning to Chris. "You deal with the big bad over there while I deal with... everything else. Leo can take care of himself."

Chris stared at his brother for a moment before muttering "Show off" and running off in the direction that Leo had gone, tossing demons out of his way as he went. Wyatt turned back toward the demons that seemed to have all realized that he was now standing there by himself. He retrieved his athame from the fallen demon before setting himself into a battle ready stance.

Across the cavern, Leo came to a skidding stop next to his cousin.

"Leo!" Patty gasped in surprise.

"Shh," he soothed. "It'll be alright now."

His fingers began to fumble with the restraints on her wrists.

"And what do you think _you're_ doing?" came a slithery voice that sent shivers up Leo's spin.

Slowly, he turned to face the demon that had started this. The one that had kidnapped his cousin and got them into this situation in the first place. His mouth suddenly felt dry, and he had the distinct feeling of wanting to disappear into the wall. He was no demon-fighter. He couldn't do this.

"Hey! Your fight is with me." Chris was suddenly there, waving his arm and sending the demon careening into the wall. He turned to look at Leo. "Get Patty about of here. Wyatt and I will deal with this scum."

Leo looked around, wondering where Wyatt was, but Chris's warning of "_Now!_" sent him back to his first task at hand. He turned back to Patty, fingers fumbling on the restraints. Behind him, he could hear the obvious signs of battle. It was terrifying, sending his heart racing impossibly quickly, and all he wanted to do was turn around and watch, but he couldn't. And he couldn't get these damn cuffs off either.

"Just blow them up, Leo!" Patty snapped. "You can, can't you?"

"Uh..." Feeling rather dumb, Leo nodded before stepping back. A moment later, the cuffs were exploding and Patty was collapsing to the floor. "You alright?"

She nodded. "I'm fine."

"Good; let's go," he said, helping her to her feet and preparing to orb.

"But-!"

And she didn't even have to finish for Leo to know what she was going to say. He glanced back toward the battle, finding Chris easily as he dodged - rather expertly, actually - two electricity balls thrown at him and sending a third back toward the demon. He still didn't know where Wyatt was, but a demon screamed from somewhere within the crowd, so he assumed that his brother was fine. There was nothing left for him to do here.

"Let's go," he repeated, before orbing them both away.

The energy ball that Chris had just thrown back missed the demon, but it was enough of a distraction. Chris reached into his pocket and threw the potion with all of his might. The demon saw it coming - but it was too late. The potion smashed against the demon's chest, and immediately, he began to writhe and scream before bursting into flames. A few seconds later, the other demons in the cavern exploded leaving Chris and a slightly worn Wyatt alone.

Wyatt blinked, tilting his head in confusion. "I thought that potion was only meant to vanquish Laraje?"

Chris glanced at Wyatt, looking slightly confused as well. "I guess not."

"Damn," Wyatt said, shaking his head. "And I was at twenty-seven, too."

Chris grinned. "That puts me at - what? Fifty-four? Fifty-five? Either way... I totally kicked your ass."

"I'm so going to win next time," Wyatt challenged, narrowing his eyes. Then he glanced around the area. "Leo and Patty get out?"

"Yeah, seems so."

"Good. Let's go, then."

With a nod from Chris, they both disappeared in blue orbs.

- - -

Song: "First Time" by Lifehouse

The hospital hallways were relatively empty during this time of day as, technically, it was not visiting hours. However, with Wyatt leading the way wearing his hospital scrubs, his Uncle Coop and Hope were able to follow him without anybody to stop them. He led them through hallway after hallway before finally leading him to the room that had just been in earlier that day. He stopped outside it, listened as he heard Dr Yates within.

"Why are we here?" Hope asked, curiously.

"For you to meet the love of your life," Coop said, easily.

Wyatt resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the corniness, especially since he knew that his uncle was not lying. That was always such a strange thing, but it was something one got used to while growing up in a magical family.

"He's... in there?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"Right in there," Coop nodded.

"Who is he?"

This time, it was Wyatt who answered as he looked through the chart that had been sitting in the basket outside the door: "Rick Scholtz. He was in a car accident this morning. He came in with four fractured ribs, a broken wrist, and third-degree burns. He's still unconscious, but he should make a full recovery - save for the scarring."

Hope had been listening with rapt attention. "May I... may I see him?" she asked, her blue eyes watery and uncertain.

"Hold on a second," Wyatt muttered, as he pretended to be immersed in the chart. A second later, Dr Yates came out of the room, turned down the hallway, and disappeared. Wyatt waited until he could no longer hear the sounds of the doctor's footfalls before he nodded his head toward the door. "Okay, go ahead."

Eagerly, Hope dashed into the room. She paused at the doorway before slowly venturing the rest of the way inside. Coop and Wyatt followed her. Coop held up his ring as it glowed a bright red. He smiled, "A perfect match."

Wyatt looked at his uncle curiously as Hope pulled up a chair beside the hospital bed where a man laid heavily injured, hooked up to IVs and an oxygen mask. He would be okay, Wyatt knew, but he still looked pretty awful. Hope grabbed Rick's hand in her own almost hesitantly.

"How did you know it was him?" Wyatt asked quietly to the cupid.

"I knew, because no matter how much you might like to think otherwise, life is _not_ just a bunch of coincidences," he answered.

Wyatt gave him an unimpressed look. "So, you mean to tell me that she found us because... it was fate?"

Coop smiled at the disdainful tone in the blonde's voice. "Yes. Because it was fate that Chris was driving down that highway--"

"He drives down that highway _every_ day."

"--fate that you were called in to observe surgery this morning--"

"I'm called in to observe surgeries at least once a week."

"--fate that it was _this_ man whose surgery you were overseeing--"

"I don't like where you're going with this."

"--and fate that Hope fell from grace at the exact moment that she did."

Wyatt glowered. "So, you mean to tell me that we have no control over our lives? That everything is just 'fate'?"

"Oh, you have _some_ control," Coop said, cryptically. "But some things are just meant to be. Like them." He nodded toward Hope and Rick.

"I don't think I like that idea," Wyatt muttered darkly.

Coop just smiled. "You'll get used to it."

But Wyatt seriously doubted that he would.

- - -

Leo groaned. More training today, but this time, not with his mom.

"I really don't think I can do this Aunt Phoebe." Leo was sitting cross legged in his Aunt's living room attempting to meditate. It was not his favorite activity, and, to be honest, the quiet was beginning to get on his nerves.

"I don't hear any humming." Phoebe said in a sing-song voice.

"Aunt Phoebe, I am not cut out to do this kind of stuff. I mean, come on! I am not the yoga-doing, mantra-speaking, sit-down-and-do-nothing kind of guy. I haven't been. Ever. End of story. Now, if you have something more time consuming and energy using, I'll be glad to train with you, but if not, I'm going to leave," Leo said bluntly.

Phoebe looked at him from her position above him, levitating, and smiled. "Leo, we're not that different." Phoebe floated down. She stood up from her Indian-style seating position and walked over to a book shelf and pulled out a photo album.

Leo scoffed. He had heard the stories of Phoebe's past from his mother's point of view. Frankly, he thought she was rather tame.

"Your mother probably made me seem rather innocent as far as rebels go."

Once again, Phoebe was right on the mark. Leo always wondered if empathy evolved into telepathy after so many years, especially with Aunt Phoebe's seemingly all-knowing remarks. She opened a page from the photo album and pulled out a picture from her past, the punk-rocker Phoebe that made things so difficult for her Grams. The Phoebe that she used to be afraid to face.

"Where the hell did you get that jacket?!" were the first words out of Leo's mouth.

Phoebe laughed. "Let's just say that I wasn't afraid to steal a few things, okay? But Leo, I'm not proud of her, but I don't shun her either. And I haven't been her for at least 30 years."

Leo looked at his Aunt seriously for a minute. He could feel her pride at her accomplishments, but a hint of remorse was poking through. He knew she was trying to get something through to him, but it was evading – just as most of this witch stuff did.

"So... being a witch and embracing your powers and everything changed you that much?" he deadpanned, unimpressed.

"I wouldn't say that's what changed me. No. Letting people in is what really changed me, Leo. Now, I have a question." Phoebe paused to see if Leo would consent. He didn't answer, but she went ahead anyway. "Have you been proud of yourself for the past couple of years?"

Leo stayed quiet, chewing the inside of his cheek.

"Do you want to meditate some more?"

He heisted before slowly nodding. He had some thinking to do.

- - -

"Alright, thanks. Were there any more notes from class?"

Chris looked at the guy on the videophone, waiting for his answer. Jonah was one of Chris' closest mortal friends, and one of the few to not be affected by his magical world.

"Nah, man, no notes. But a new video assignment. It's due next week."

"What?! How the hell am I supposed to finish a video in a week? I haven't even been able to pick up my new camera yet!"

"Well, then you better go get it and start filming. But anyway, dude, you have a week. It'll be fine. And you've been in the program for three years; you know shit like this happens. It's not like it's a twenty-four hour deal."

Chris yawned. It seemed like he was just getting more and more tired with the dreams he was having lately. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry about that, man. What's the prompt?"

"Well, it has to be 30 minutes long. And there isn't a prompt this time; it's a tagline. 'Life takes a turn for the worst.' And you can basically do what you want with it."

Chris muttered, "Three years of doing whatever the hell they want me to do, and they pick_ now_ to let me be creative? The one time I have no inspiration..."

"Hey, man, no sweat. Just sleep on it, okay?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I just hate missing class. Alright, I'm gonna go."

"Bye."

Chris clicked the phone off and headed to his room. Sleeping sounded like a very good idea. Maybe there wouldn't be any dreams this time.

- - -

Sound: Music fades

There he was again. Back through that portal to some twisted alternate reality that Chris didn't recognize. He was that man again. The rougher Chris, someone that was raised a little differently than he was, but it was obviously him, Chris Halliwell, son of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt.

A Valkyrie approached him.

_"I don't believe it. Banish the guy to an island filled with beautiful women and he still complains. I can't win."_

_"How much longer?"_

_"Until I'm ready. Look, I'm sorry but I haven't finished what I came here to do yet. And I need Leo out of the way until I can. More importantly, the sisters can't find him before I'm ready or else..."_

A flash. He was speaking with a young Aunt Paige.

"_What kind of Whitelighter can't heal?"_

It struck a cord with him on two different levels – one of them he didn't even really understand.

_"For the record, you can't heal either."_

_"I'm half-whitelighter. How come you didn't tell us about this before we hired you?"_

_"Because you didn't hire me. I was assigned by the Elders."_

Another flash. Paige orbed out of the room leaving Chris alone with a baby, and the baby was Wyatt. He knew that, no matter how unreal it was, it was true. Chris kicked a toy in frustration and a blue force field jumped up around Wyatt.

_"If anyone should be protecting themselves, it's me from you."_

Another Flash. His father orbed into the room suddenly, pissed as hell. And Chris knew why, but he tried to play innocent.

_"__Geez, it's about time, I was starting to get wor... Where's Piper?"_

"_You son of a bitch!"_ Leo punched Chris in the face and pushed him against the wall. _"Why'd you do it?"_

"_Do what?"_

Leo threw him across the room.

Another flash. His aunts and his father were all there. His mother was missing. Something was wrong.

_"Well, she helped Darryl and that wasn't with her Valkyrie powers. That was with her Charmed powers." _

_"The witch within must still be alive."_

_"And that's how you're gonna reach her." _To Phoebe, who looked hopeless.

_"Yeah, but how? I mean, just because I can feel some glimmer of Piper's feelings doesn't mean she can. She's completely cut off from them." _

"_Wait-wait-wait, hold it. Isn't there a spell in the book that allows somebody to feel what you feel? Which in this case will be Piper feeling what you're feeling Piper should be feeling. Did that make sense?"_

"_Um, frighteningly it did. What about that spell I used on Cole last year. The one to make him sense whether or not you loved him. I could reword it for Piper."_

Then, Chris woke up, gasping for breath, sweat clinging to his skin uncomfortably. Goddamn dreams were starting to screw with his head, not to mention with his sleeping pattern. But they weren't dreams. That was becoming more and more obvious with each one. The heavy weight that was sitting on his shoulders was similar to a weight that he was quite used to.

They were premonitions.

But what the hell was he seeing?

* * *

Next episode: "The Deadliest Flower"


	4. Episode Three

**Disclaimer:** We do not own Charmed in any way, shape, or fashion. We do, however, own their souls.

**Summary:** Leo has finally accepted his fate. He's decided to move in with his brother's permanently, or at least, he hopes that Chris will let him move in permanently. Everything seems normal. Almost too normal. But the boys accept the break for the moment, with no questions. Until Wyatt starts being thrown into days, literally. The eldest Halliwell son is going from Monday to Friday, to Thursday, all within a couple minutes of each other! As black flowers pop up wherever he goes, Wyatt has no idea what to do, especially without his brothers. And who is this demoness?

**Author's Notes:** Just a reminder: there are two people writing this story. This is Kaye. O'Tuachiar is here, too, standing over my shoulder. For once, it's not the middle of the night.

We sincerely apologize (to the point where O'Tuachair is bowing in a Japanese apologetic fashion) for the wait, but writer's block among other things got in the way. A few changes have occurred while writing this story. For one, we fired Kevin Zegers. Legasp, I know. Instead, we decided that _Ian Somerhalder_ looks more like miniature Chris thus earning him the part of Leonardo Victor Halliwell. Hopefully you forgive us for the wait, but maybe this offer of new hotness will make you happy. Maybe? Possibly?

Constructive criticism is welcome.

Enjoy!

* * *

**The Phoenix Trials**

**Chapter Three: Seeded**

GUEST STARS:

CANIPE, Ridge... Young DJ  
HOFF, Miles... Young Leo Jr.  
SHELLY, Randy... Young Wyatt  
SMITH, Zachary Dylan... Young Chris  
VERGARA, Sofia... The Black Lotus

Everything was a bit fuzzy. Shaky. Like it wasn't really quite happening.

Like a dream.

He walked up the stairwell. He knew this place, knew it like the back of his hand. But it was silent, empty, dark. That was unusual. A place so filled with life to see it this silent and dark was strange. Eerie. His feet were bare and pressed into the carpeted steps as he climbed the stairs, one right after another, and his hand trailed along the railing as he went. It was so silent. He was nervous.

And then - was that footsteps that he heard coming from upstairs?

He paused, frightened for a moment, before continuing again, more determined. His footsteps quickened. He raced down the hallway, his breath quickening with his movements. It was dark and silent, but he was certain he had heard something. Where had it come from? Did it come from there--?

The door flew open at his insistence, and he stood, hackles raised, ready. Two boys lay asleep - unaware - in their beds as they were supposed to be, and there was a woman, too. A woman he had never seen. He swallowed. She was dangerous; he could tell. She was here to hurt him or to hurt one of the two sleeping boys in the bed. She terrified him. The door slammed shut behind him, locked.

He was alone. What was he supposed to do?

Then she was grinning, smiling, as though he had just said something quite amusing, and he knew that wasn't a good smile. It was terrifying and horrible, and he was shaking slightly, his heart pounding in his ears. There was nothing he could do, though. What could he do!?

She began to walk toward him, slowly, sensually, and his heart leaped into his throat. He was paralyzed, unable to move, and she continued to advance on him as one would advance on their prey. That's what he was. Her prey. His back found the closed door as he tried to stumble away from her, but he was trapped. She grabbed his face then, forcing him to look at her even as she smirked down at him.

Then... she did something odd. She kissed him, leaned down to his height to kiss him, and his blue eyes widened in surprise and shock. But slowly... so slowly, as he felt his energy draining and his world slowly turn black, his eyes slid shut and his body went limp. But still conscious. And she knew that, even as she finally let go of him and let his body fall into a heap on the floor and whispered one last thing to him: "See you in ten years."

Wyatt awoke.

He gasped in the air that seemed to be missing from his lungs as he sat up in his bed, his hand clutching his chest as he tried to slow his frantically beating heart. _What a freaky dream,_ he thought shakily. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and grimaced at the slick sheen of sweat that was lacing his body.

"I need a shower," he muttered as he stood. The room swam dizzily before his eyes for a second, and he clutched his head painfully. "Coffee and aspirin first."

With a plan in mind, Wyatt walked from the room toward the kitchen where he found Leo sitting, already drinking a soda. He made a face at the soda as he poured himself a mug of coffee and fished the aspirin out of the drawers.

As he took a seat on the table, he nodded toward the can, "How can you drink that this early?"

Leo simply raised an eyebrow. "How can _you_ drink_ that_?"

"Touché," Wyatt murmured, raising his mug slightly before washing down the aspirin with the coffee.

Leo watched in a silence for a moment before finally asking. "Have a headache, Wy?"

"Like you wouldn't believe," he murmured. "I had this freaky ass dream last night."

"Oh, poor baby," Leo teased. "Did little Wyatt have a nightmare?"

"Oh, shut up," Wyatt grumbled. The idea of sharing his dream suddenly didn't seem like a good idea. Deciding to change the subject, he looked around. "Where's Chris?"

"Double-checking on things at P3, trying to make sure everything's cool for tonight," Leo answered. "He should be back soon."

"Since when did you get so in tune with Chris's schedule?" Wyatt asked, raising an eyebrow.

Leo shrugged uncomfortably and stood, leaving the kitchen almost immediately. The elder Halliwell sighed, feeling rather dumb for teasing his brother when he obviously wasn't in the mood. He wiped his eyes, glanced over at the counter top, and froze. There was a black flower settled there, as though somebody had put it down gently and forgotten about it.

Wyatt stood and walked toward the flower, picking it up between his fingers as he did so. It was actually quite beautiful, if it hadn't been black with an almost dead appearance about it. He rolled it between his fingers a few times before shrugging and dropping it back on the counter. It was probably Chris's or Leo's... maybe they had a girl they were trying to impress. Wasn't his business.

As he turned his back, he never noticed the flower disappear.

Opening Credits Roll  
Theme Song: "Fallen Angels" by Aerosmith

- - -

Song: "Manic Monday" by the Bangles

Wyatt had officially left the building. Leo was left at the apartment alone, which is where he usually found himself these days. Chris was either at school or at P3, while Wyatt spent his days at the hospital or, from what Leo figured, somewhere with someone doing something he'd rather not know about.

And Leo was stuck at the apartment.

He had finally given up on trying to find another place to stay. Although, he hadn't quite told his brother's that he planned on living there yet. He really should have by now, but there never really was a perfect time. If Chris was at home, he was too busy trying to figure out where the next demon would be so that he could vanquish it and catching some shut eye.

If Wyatt was home, he was either flirting on the TC with some chick or also asleep.

They probably figured it out anyway. _What's the point in telling them now? I'd probably just be wasting my breath._

And, it still didn't solve his problem. He was bored being left at the house all the time. He needed to find a job. Of course, knowing his luck, the only jobs available at the time would be in Fast Food Service, which, to tell the truth, was not a level he was willing to stoop too. Working at the club would be great, if only Chris would allow him. There were strict rules for bartenders, and that included an incredibly clean background, which Leo would never have in his brother's eyes. Maybe, with his mother's help, Chris would have to cave.

_Yeah, right._

"Name, please." An electronic voice spoke from the front door. Alvira, the landlady, had recently installed the latest in door locks and security, at the expense of everyone paying an extra $150 on this month's rent. The locks were voice activated, while the security systems scanned the owner's left eye. Next, she said that she planned on expanding the window's locks. Which, of course, would cost the tenants another extra $150. But that, fortunately, would wait until next month.

Leo could hear Chris' sigh. This new technology was driving the middle child crazy. Especially since it rarely ever recognized his voice, eye, or fingerprint. And more than half the time, his principles were compromised.

"Chris Halliwell." Chris spoke loudly into the built-in mic.

"Access denied." the female voice replied.

Leo could practically see Chris growling as he repeated, "Chris Halliwell."

"Access denied."

"Chris Halliwell!"

"Access denied."

Leo was moving to get up and let his brother in when he heard Chris give another sigh as he mumbled, "Fuck this."

Leo could almost see his brother looking around for mortal onlookers. There was a light jingling heard as Chris orbed into the kitchen, looking for something cold to drink.

"So, Chris..." Leo snuck up behind his elder brother, happy to finally be able to pin something on him.

"Little brother?"

"Yes?"

"Go fuck yourself." Chris telekinetically flung a soda at Leo, waiting for his reflexes to kick in.

Luckily, they did this time. Leo froze the can in mid-air and grabbed it. "Thanks."

Chris looked stunned. That was the most confident Leo had been with his powers in over a month. He opened his mouth, perhaps to say something on the subject, but instead shook his head and turned away. With a sigh, he walked back out of the kitchen toward the living room. Leo followed. Chris collapsed into the sofa, reaching over to pick up the remote for the TC as he did so. Leo sat next to him. Chris watched the pointless conversation on the TC. Leo watched him.

"Is there something you need?" Chris said, slowly turning to look at his brother.

Leo looked away quickly as though he had not been staring before clearing his throat. He took another sip of his soda as he thought for a moment, before turning to Chris and asking, "Are you busy?"

Chris raised an eyebrow and looked from Leo to the telecomputer back again.

Leo rolled his eyes at Chris's nonverbal answer. He tapped his fingers against the soda can once, twice, three times before finally sighing and standing, Chris watching him all the while. He sat down his soda can before facing his brother, crossing his arms over his chest. He wasn't trying to come off as closed, but it was natural for him, but even his voice when he spoke came off sounding a little harsher than he intended. "Can I move in? Permanently?"

The green-eyed Halliwell blinked. Twice.

The youngest cleared his throat again and let his arms drop to his sides. "Please?" he added, sounding almost pathetic.

Then Chris got this thoughtful look on his face, as if he was actually mulling it over in his mind, as if he had to actually think long and hard about whether or not he wanted to let his brother move in. Leo swallowed, his teeth grinding ever so slightly, as he stood there and waited. He was getting impatient, waiting for his brother to say _something_, but he was taking his sweet time, and Leo highly doubted that his opinion of this wait would secure him a spot here. He reached out with his powers, his empathy touching at his brother as he tried to decipher what he was feeling - thinking - and got a whole lot of indecisive, rather defeated, feedback.

Finally, Chris looked at him and said, "You can't sit around here and do nothing all day."

"I won't," he promised.

"You have to get a job, or go to school," he continued.

"I will," he swore.

"Then," Chris sighed, "it's fine with me."

A small smile played Leo's lips. "Thanks."

As Leo turned and disappeared into his room, the front door opened, and Wyatt came trudging in, rubbing at his eyes. Chris looked up, slightly annoyed at the fact that his brother had just come through the front door - a new development.

"Did the lock just work for you?"

Wyatt looked at Chris confused for a second before looking behind him at the lock. He smiled. "Yeah, it did. Man, those things sure are neat, huh? Alvira's really starting to spice the place up."

"Yeah, it's a great big pointless dent in my paycheck," the middle brother grumbled.

"What are you so annoyed about?" Wyatt asked as he walked to the kitchen.

Chris stood and followed him, turning off the TC as he did. "I'm not annoyed," he said defensively. Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "These new locks are just driving me crazy. They never recognize me."

"Do you use the same voice inflection as you did when you entered your voice code?" Wyatt asked, rising an eyebrow.

"Yes," Chris huffed, gripping the back of one of the chairs, opting to stand as opposed to sitting.

Wyatt shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you, then."

"They installed the same equipment at the university, too. Can't get into the video editing room unless the lock recognizes your voice code. It never works for me," he continued.

Pulling a beer out of the fridge, the blond gave another shrug. "Maybe you don't exist?"

Chris gave him a dry look. "Very funny." He paused for a moment before giving the beer in Wyatt's hand an odd look. "A little early to be drinking, don't you think?"

"I've had a strange day; I deserve it," Wyatt said simply.

"It's only two o'clock," Chris said slowly. "The day's not even over yet."

Wyatt raised the can in agreement. "That's why I deserve it."

"What could have happened already that is really that strange?" Chris asked slowly, watching as his brother took a healthy swig.

"Well... started with this morning. I had this completely bizarre dream." He shook his head slightly as he thought about it. He could almost still feel the woman's lips on his own, though it wasn't a happy memory. Rather, it made him feel kind of disturbed and sick to the stomach thinking about it. "Then, I woke up, got out of bed, went to the kitchen, and got some coffee." Chris gave him a strange look, but Wyatt wasn't finished. "I went back to my room, got dressed, headed to the hospital... and when I got there - I was two hours late."

Chris's eyes widened. "Two hours!?"

Wyatt looked as befuddled by it as Chris was. "I don't know how it happened. My alarm didn't go off. I never noticed the time. It was as though I was completely spacing out or something."

"Jesus Christ, Wy," Chris muttered, shaking his head.

"And that's not all," Wyatt continued, an almost desperate look on his face. "When I was observing surgery today, I was also assisting by handing the doctor instruments and whatnot. Happens from time to time. He tells me to hand him the scalpel. Fine. Okay. That's a normal request, except... when I go to grab the scalpel - I accidentally orb it across the room and into his hand."

Chris's eyes were nearly popping out of his head. "Wy!"

"He didn't notice!" Wyatt added quickly. "But it was still... I have no idea what happened. I don't know what's going on with me today. I think I'm going crazy."

A small ironical smile appeared on Chris's face as he calmed down slightly. "Well, we've always known that about you, Wyatt. That's nothing new."

Wyatt smiled slightly. "Oh, shut up."

"Losing your sanity or not, you're still going to help me out at P3 tonight, right?"

"Tonight..." Wyatt repeated slowly before nodding. "Right. Yeah, I'll definitely be there. Don't worry." He yawned then and shook his head a bit. "I think I'm going to go take a nap before, though." He glanced at the can that was still mostly full. "Maybe it was too early for this."

Then, much to Chris's chagrin, he left the can lying on the table and stood.

"Wyatt," Chris scolded as he crossed the kitchen floor, "don't leave your shit around for me to pick up. You can leave your room a pigsty for all I care, but don't let it flow out here."

"Yeah, yeah," Wyatt said, waving him off as he stepped through the doorway.

And ended up in the halls of the hospital.

Wyatt froze as he looked around him in utter confusion. Doctors and nurses rushed every which way, and Wyatt stood, dressed in his scrubs as though he had been there all morning.

"What... the... hell...?"

- - -

"_Dad!_" A young nine-year-old Leo whined to his father after Wyatt's particularly older views began to aggravate him.

Or Leo Jr.'s childish views aggravated Wyatt. No one really knew.

Leo Sr. took a moment before answering Junior's plea, as he told their TC 2014 to pause for a moment. It was family movie night and they were going old school since it was Chris' turn to pick. _The Mummy_ was this night's movie and, needless to say, Leo Jr. found a way to stop the movie frequently.

He insisted that he wasn't scared.

"What's wrong, Little Buddy?" Leo asked him with a sigh.

"Wyatt said he wouldn't help me practice for Baseball tryouts tomorrow!" Junior put on a pouty face and looked at Wyatt accusingly.

Wyatt groaned. Just as he was finally getting back into the movie after Junior's _twentieth _time at stopping it, he was at it again. "What does he need help with? The ball's on a freakin' tee!"

"Watch your language, Wyatt." Piper chimed in.

"Sorry, mom. I just don't see why I need to help him with something that's so _simple."_

Leo Sr. turned to Wyatt and looked at him thoughtfully. "Wyatt, you know this is important to your brother. And it's important that his big brother Wyatt help him. Tryouts are coming up soon."

"Well why can't _Chris_ help him? What's so important about it being me?"

Chris looked at Wyatt and chuckled. "Because I couldn't hit a ball if it danced naked in front of me screaming 'HIT ME!'"

Piper and Leo Sr. laughed. Junior looked confused as Wyatt just looked annoyed.

Piper told the movie to stop. "Chris, I think you've seen enough 90s humor for the night."

Junior looked relieved. "But, _Mom_!"

Chris looked at his younger brother and rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't act all sad. You're happy because it was scaring you, you big baby."

"I am NOT A BABY!"

Wyatt immediately took his chance. "Then you don't need me to help you prepare for baseball, do you?"

"Oh, no you don't. You aren't getting out of it that easily." Leo Sr. added in. "What is so important for you to do on a Saturday, anyway?"

Piper laughed a little. "I think you mean _who_ is so important."

"Mom!" Wyatt looked even more annoyed. It wasn't his fault that his mother cornered him earlier that evening after she heard him practicing acting cool in front of the bathroom mirror.

"Date?" Senior asked Piper.

"More like 'casually' bumping into her at the mall tomorrow."

Chris laughed. And Leo Jr. continued to look confused.

- - -

Wyatt's eyes darted side to side as he scanned the hallways of the hospital. For all he knew, this was a demon attack and the hospital was actually just in his head. He had heard of stranger things happening, and really, with how strange his day had been so far, he wouldn't be surprised. Growing up as a Halliwell – and more specifically, as 'Wyatt Halliwell – had granted much demonic attention growing up. In a way, it had trained him to be paranoid, but luckily, he generally had Chris to be paranoid for him while he just tried to survive.

He thought about calling Chris for a moment, but if he really _was_ at the hospital, he figured that having his brother orb into the middle of the hallway wouldn't be the greatest of ideas. Not only would they have successfully exposed magic, but Chris would probably slaughter him for making him do that.

"Wyatt?"

Wyatt turned quickly toward the voice to find Linda sitting behind her desk like always. He shot her a nervous look, wondering if she had just seen him appear out of nowhere. If she had, he sure hoped Aunt Paige had some memory dust handy. He was going to need it. He wondered for one brief panicked second if he had accidentally orbed to the hospital – after all, he had accidentally tele-orbed a scalpel early today; orbing himself couldn't be that far off – when he saw that the look on Linda's face was more inquisitive than shocked.

"Er… yes?"

"You've been standing there staring for almost ten minutes. Aren't you going to come over here anytime soon?"

Standing roughly ten feet from the desk, Wyatt gave her a blank look.

She raised an eyebrow in response. "I paged you over the intercom roughly fifteen minutes ago? Remember?"

Wyatt blinked at her. "What time is it?"

"About a quarter till three. Now, if you want to continue to shout across the hall, that's fine. But just let me know," Linda said dryly.

He shook his head, trying to clear out the fog. Fifteen minutes till three o'clock? Two seconds ago, it had barely been two o'clock. Where had the last forty-five minutes of his life gone? He licked his lips and crossed the hallway toward her. "Sorry," he muttered as he leaned against the counter (he felt like he needed the stability before he passed out from confusion). "What did you need me for?"

"I just needed to let you know that Dr Yates wanted to see you as soon as possible."

"That it?" Wyatt asked, hopefully, his eyes darting up and down the hallway. He was hoping for some explanation to pop out at him, but if he didn't know any better, he would think that it was just another day at the hospital.

"That's it," Linda reiterated.

"Okay, thanks-" He stopped short in his speech as his blue eyes landed on the calendar that was hung up behind her with an interesting black flower hung above it as well. Each day that had passed was marked out on the calendar with a permanent marker indicating that today was Wednesday. But that... that wasn't correct. Couldn't be correct. Two minutes ago it had been Monday! "Is that calendar right?" Wyatt asked a little breathless as he pointed toward it.

Linda turned around to see what he was pointing toward, but before she could answer, a deep voice called down the corridor. "Halliwell!"

Wyatt snapped his attention around to find Dr Yates waiting impatiently outside one of the rooms.

"You better go," Linda said, turning back to her paperwork, forgetting to answer his previous question.

Wyatt looked from the doctor back toward the calendar once more, confusion etched on his face. "Ah... right..." He slowly said, backing away from the counter. He walked briskly toward the doctor. The sooner he finished whatever it was that he needed the finish, the sooner he could find his way to the Book of Shadows and find out what was happening to him.

"Follow me," Dr Yates practically barked before stepping into the room.

Wyatt followed him through the doorway--

And found himself in the apartment living room.

- - -

"Mom, _please_ don't do this! I have plans!"

"I know that, Wyatt, but I can't help it. Not when there's a crazy demon on the loose that would love nothing more than to destroy the Power of Three once and for all."

Piper was looking at her oldest son with a type of sincere compassion that made it nearly impossible for him to remain mad. But that didn't change the facts. He had plans to go out, be a normal teenager, and hang with his friends for a while. Now he was being reduced to being a babysitter for his brothers.

"Why can't Dad watch Chris and Leo?" he asked, grasping at straws.

"You know why he can't, Wyatt," Piper said patiently as she brewed the potion. "The demon was able to bypass the Magic School's defenses, and he has to figure out how they were able to do it. He has to keep the students safe."

The idea that his mortal father had to keep a bunch of magical children safe was a concept that was almost beyond his comprehension. It didn't matter that he had seen his father single-handedly take down demons that had threatened his family; his father was still mortal and there was something unsafe about hoping that he could protect a bunch of witches when they couldn't protect themselves.

Either way, Wyatt sighed and said, "I know. But why can't Leo and Chris go hang with Uncle Henry and Uncle Coop, then? I know they'd be more than happy to watch them."

"You're right. They would. But you would still have to go with them," Piper replied.

"What? Why!?" Wyatt snapped. He was two steps away from throwing a teenage temper tantrum.

"Because, Wyatt," and the tone in her voice left no room for argument, "you are my son. And I love you. And you are the Twice Blessed Child, and there's no telling if they're really after you or not, so I need you safe. That's either here with crystals set up to keep demons from entering the home, or that's with Coop and Henry at Phoebe's house with all of the girls, the twins, and Junior. Now, which is it going to be?"

The emotions that played across Wyatt's face for the next several seconds almost made Piper change her mind about letting him go out. She knew how much he had been looking forward to a night of just being normal - he rarely ever got the privilege - but she knew she couldn't back down about this. No matter how much she wanted to.

Wyatt sighed in defeat. "It's just not fair," he muttered, uselessly.

"I know, honey. And I'm sorry. Hopefully next week will work out better," she said.

But she knew that Wyatt had caught the way that her statement hadn't been a promise, and with a little sigh, he turned and left the room.

---

"Wyatt? Hello, Wyatt? Hey, don't make me blow something up, bro." Leo Jr. was sitting on the living-room couch, chilling with a beer. Without much thought, Wyatt walked straight to the coffee table where Leo's beer rested, snatched it up, and took a swift turn to the kitchen. Before he walked in though, he paused and looked at the doorway.

_No way._

Wyatt eyed the doorway a little bit more. Then, instead of walking into the kitchen and draining the can like he usually would, he took a quick swig and sighed.

"Hey! That was _mine_!"

"As one of the owner's of this apartment, I would like to keep illegal acts to a minimum. You have two more years." Wyatt took another drink and tried to relax, rolling his neck slightly. He winced against the obvious tension there. "Besides, I need it more than you do."

"Is Chris still not talking to you after you ditched him Monday?" Leo walked into the kitchen and yelled from the other room. "Give him some time. Damn, all I did was fuck up his home life and he's kind of talking to me."

"Ditched him? Monday?" Wyatt was puzzled as he looked around his living room. A black flower was positioned on the floor in front of the TC.

"Yeah, man. I mean, if I knew all I had to do to get Chris to talk to me was to get him mad at you, I would have told him about the Amanda thing a _long_ time ago." Leo chuckled at his joke and walked back into the living room with another beer.

That woke Wyatt up.

"Dude, what the _fuck_ are you doing? It's illegal for you to drink that shit. Especially in Chris' apartment."

"Well, I have to get to know my merchandise, don't I?" Leo dropped back down onto the couch.

The beer can nearly slipped from Wyatt's fingers. "You're _selling alcohol?!_"

"At P3? I'm becoming a bartender?"

"Bullshit. Chris would _not_ let you do that."

"Dude, it was part of the agreement to let me move in, remember? If I got a job, and tried to go back to school, I could move in. Plus, Chris would much rather have me working at P3 where he could keep an eye on me, than at some place where he'll assume I'm doing something illegal."

Wyatt stood shocked. He barely blinked. "Move in? When?"

"Wyatt, are you okay? You helped me move in! You said that as long as Chris thought it was okay, you were okay with it! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Leo, what day is it?"

Leo thought this was a good time to joke. Again. "Why, sir, it's Christmas morn'."

"Leo, what fucking day is it?!" growled a more than frustrated Wyatt.

"It's Friday, okay? Shit."

Wyatt ran to his room to get a calendar and walked straight into a new shipment for P3.

"Leo! What the hell is this order doing in my room?!"

"Ummm, Wy, that's not your room; that's the dance floor to the club." Chris' voice said behind him.

- - -

"But, MOM! I have been waiting for this moment all year, and I'm getting to play! It's not like I'm going to be stuck on the bench because I'm the smallest kid anymore!" Wyatt yelled at his mom for the umpteenth time that morning.

"I understand that, Wyatt, but this is also your brother's first Spelling Bee. And I know it won't be your last game." Piper tried to explain the circumstances to Wyatt. Unfortunately, there was a scheduling issue that the Charmed Ones did not foresee and could not vanquish.

"So, I'm getting punished because I worked my butt off in hockey while my little brother was still learning his basic vocab? Mom! I can't believe you're going to leave me there all by myself while all my friends' parents are there!" Wyatt took a moment to take a breath, but before he could tear into his mother again, Piper snapped.

"Le-" Piper paused. "Wyatt!"

"MOM!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but usually when I hear whining like this, it's from your baby brother." Wyatt glared. "And what I was trying to tell you earlier was that we wouldn't be missing your game."

"Oh. _Oh_! So, Chris is stuck by himself. Poor kid."

"_Or your brother's Bee._" Piper told him, scolding him with her tone.

"Oh..." Wyatt paused for a moment, thinking the situation over. While he was happy that they would get to his game, he was worried about the consequences. "Mom...isn't...isn't that personal gain?"

"What?! No, no, no, we will _not_ be using magic! This is a normal family, Wyatt." Wyatt gave her a look. "Under these circumstances. This is a normal thing that normal families have to go through. Your brother's Spelling Bee is scheduled at 4:30. You're game is scheduled at 6. The worst that'll happen is that we'll miss thirty minutes of your game. It shouldn't last that long at all."

"Oh. Magic would have been a better plan." Wyatt's voice still sounded sort of disappointed. "What if it _does_ last longer?"

Piper sighed. "Wyatt..."

"Well?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We're going to leave the second your brother's done, Wyatt. I promise," Piper said, trying to keep her patience.

"But what if it runs longer than you think?"

"It won't, Wyatt. It's a Spelling Bee, not an epic demon battle," she joked lightly.

Wyatt obviously wasn't amused. "But what if it does?"

"Wyatt!" she snapped before taking a deep breath. "We'll leave when you're brother's done and not a second before, but I'm almost one hundred percent positive that it won't interfere with your game at all."

Wyatt scowled down at the kitchen floor for a moment before lifting his head to say something else, but Chris dashing into the room cut him off.

"Hey, Mom!" the twelve-year old said as he came to a skidding stop next to the Halliwell matriarch. "Jaime just called to let me know that the Spelling Bee's been pushed back. It won't start till 5:30."

Piper stared at Chris in surprise for a moment before letting out a sigh. "Oh, Da-dang." she muttered, turning to look at her oldest son.

But Wyatt was already throwing his hands up in defeat and turning to leave the room. He tossed a half-hearted "Whatever" over his shoulder before he practically stormed out the door.

---

Wyatt whipped around to face the voice that belonged to his eldest younger brother. He stared at him wide-eyed, but Chris's eyes were focused on the clipboard in his hand as he read over what appeared to be the inventory list. There was a moment where Wyatt was about ready to either panic or scream as he realized that he had – once again – somehow ended up somewhere else, meaning that it was probably another time.

He ran his hands over his face, sucking in a deep breath as he did so. "Oh God…" he muttered tiredly.

"Will you stop moaning about your fate and get to work? You ditched Monday, which means you get to help me with inventory today," Chris said curtly, checking one of the boxes by his feet before marking a check on the clipboard with his pen. He gestured toward the box, "These glasses go behind the bar near the third cash register."

Wyatt knew that was a command for him to move the box where Chris had said, but he didn't move. He felt like he couldn't move half of him somewhat afraid that if he moved from this spot he'd end up jumping places again, even though his mind was telling him that the jumps had everything to do with the doorways.

_Damn doorways_, he cursed pointlessly.

"Chris, you have to help me," he said somewhat shakily.

Chris shot him an incredulous look. "Wyatt, it's just a box. Can't weigh more than fifteen pounds. I'm certain you can handle it."

"No, I don't mean with that!" he sighed, and then he did move, stepping over the boxes around him to make his way toward Chris. "There's something strange going on," he started to say and then stopped, casting a glance around them. He wasn't sure if they were alone or not, so she lowered his voice and added, "Something _family_ related."

That got Chris's attention. He lowered the clipboard to give Wyatt a long hard look. "We're alone here," he said slowly. "You were fine five minutes ago, Wyatt… what's up?"

"That's just it!" Wyatt exclaimed wildly. He was trying not to panic – really, he was – but all of this jumping around was starting to drive him a little crazy. "I don't remember being here five minutes ago!"

"What?" the brunette said, blinking at his brother in shock. "What do you mean you don't remember where you were five minutes ago? You were here. With me. Doing inventory. And complaining a hell of a lot while you were, I might add."

"But, Chris, I don't remember _any_ of that. The last thing I remember is—" Wyatt stopped suddenly as a thought came to him. "Today is Sunday, isn't it?"

"Very good, Wyatt; next we'll work on getting you to memorize the months of the years!" Chris said dryly.

The blond groaned. "Why do you and Leo think that _now_ of all times is a great time to joke? I'm freaking out here, in case you two haven't noticed!"

"Leo?" Chris blinked. "What does he—?"

"That's the last thing I remember before suddenly arriving here," Wyatt said, cutting him off. "I was at the apartment with Leo on _Friday_. Then, before that, at the hospital on _Wednesday_. Then, before that, with you in the kitchen on _Monday_. And now it's Sunday, which means if I do another jump, I'll probably end up on—Tuesday. It'll be Tuesday."

"Wy, what in the world are you talking about?" Chris asked his eyebrows knitted as he attempted to keep up with his brother's ravings.

"Chris, I'm stuck in some weird sort of time loop jump thing!" Wyatt explained as he paced a few steps back and forth in front of the younger Halliwell. "I'm fine when I arrive at a certain time and place until I try walking through a doorway." Suddenly, a little paranoid, Wyatt did a quick survey of the area taking in all of the doorways – to the bathrooms, to storage, to the staff room, to outside, and the backdoor.

"What happens when you talk through doorways?" Chris asked. He had put down the clipboard now and was watching Wyatt worriedly. The blond couldn't tell if the worry was for his sanity or his life, but he figured it was fine either way as long as he had the other witch's complete attention.

"I end up jumping through time again," Wyatt said slowly, his eyes suddenly trained on the floor.

"What is it?" Chris asked, noticing the strange look in Wyatt's gaze.

"Hey, Chris," Wyatt said slowly. "What's with the black flower?"

The younger Halliwell turned to follow the Twice Blessed's stare. "What black flower?" he asked, green eyes trailing across the floor.

"That one, right—"

But before Wyatt could point it out, two demons shimmered into the club. Chris and Wyatt spun in the direction of the demons, immediately falling into battle ready stances.

"Damnit," Chris muttered, waving his arm in a wide arc and sending both demons flying through the air.

That didn't keep the demons down for long.

Wyatt stared at the demons in frozen surprise, which was odd since Wyatt hadn't been surprised by demons in a long time. He watched, stiff and wary, as Chris sent one of the demons careening back into the wall once more.

"Wyatt! Wake up!" Chris barked, suddenly.

The blond jerked himself out of the surprised stupor that he had fallen into just as the second demon turned its attention on the elder Halliwell. The demon charged an energy ball in his hand before winding his arm and chunking it toward the blond like a baseball. Wyatt raised his hand, ready to stop the flying energy ball with his shield - except that wasn't what happened. The energy ball disappeared in a sudden flurry of orbs that sent it crashing into a stack of boxes on the other side of the club.

Wyatt stared slack jawed at his apparent mistake.

Chris let out a surprised and slightly angry cry as a week of supplies exploded.

"Uh... whoops?" Wyatt murmured helplessly.

The younger Halliwell didn't have a chance to respond to Wyatt's lame attempt at an explanation before the demons took advantage of the distraction. The demon that Chris had thrown into the wall sent an energy ball at the brunette while the other demon took a more physical approach, shimmering in front of Wyatt, grabbing him by the front of his shirt, and with an amazing amount of strength, throwing him across the room. The door to the office slammed into his back before it gave way and he fell through the doorway.

The resulting fall nearly sent him over the edge of the top of the Golden Gate Bridge.

- - -

In a shower of orbs, Paige and Wyatt materialized. Leo Sr.'s eyes immediately narrowed upon seeing them. It was obvious from the way that Paige had her hand firmly on Wyatt's shoulder that she had orbed him (something that she did not need to do as he was quite able to orb himself, unless he was being difficult and unwilling to orb himself). A second later, Chris appeared a few feet behind his brother and aunt with an expression that clearly wished for the ability to disappear.

Leo Sr. was sick for the day, one of the few problems with being mortal in his world. Piper had refused to let the boys heal him, saying that it was absolutely normal for a man to get sick and miss one day of work, no matter how important that work may be. He was forced to ask Paige to fill in for him that day and went on to his bed, worrying the whole day about what kind of work his students were up to.

Leo kept his attention on Wyatt, as it was Wyatt was being escorted by his aunt, and Wyatt who had his head bowed in a slightly guilty manner. He stood as he approached his magical family. "What happened?" he sighed, getting straight to business. As it was, the boys getting into trouble wasn't really his expertise. Piper was more likely to know what the proper punishment would be.

"Wyatt got into a fight at Magic School," Paige told her plainly.

The blond witchlighter turned to look at his aunt with a wide betrayed expression. "I did not!" he protested.

Paige scoffed. "You mean I didn't have to separate you and Mickey Jones?"

Wyatt flushed red. "He jumped me! I was just defending myself," he swore, vehemently.

"Wait a minute," Leo interrupted, tersely. "What exactly happened? Who jumped you?"

From the way that Wyatt's eyes darted to the side before casting toward the ground, it was obvious that he didn't want to answer. Leo crossed his arms over his chest, staring down his son as he waited for him to speak, but it seemed that the eldest of the next generation of Halliwells was quite adamant about not saying anything.

Finally, after the silence seemed to weigh on the room for a bit, Chris spoke up for his brother. "Mickey is this witch from New Jersey who thinks he's the coolest thing ever, even though he's only a minor level psychic. Able to predict things before they happen a few seconds in advance, get a good intuition on people's thoughts, that sort of thing."

"And why would this kid want to jump Wyatt?"

"That's what I would like to know," Paige ground out, pushing Wyatt's shoulder lightly, attempting to draw an answer out of him.

All he did, though, was sigh deeply and shake his head, obviously intent on remaining silent. Which was strange, since 'Wyatt' and 'silent' hardly ever belonged in the same sentence.

"Thanks, Paige, but I think I need to talk to the boys alone."

Paige nodded in understanding. "Sure thing. Call me if you need anything." Then she disappeared in a shower of orbs just the way she had appeared.

Leo considered Wyatt before him for a moment. "You want to tell me what happened?"

Again, he was answered with silence.

He turned to Chris this time, who seemed to jump under his stare. "Do _you_ want to tell me what happened?"

"I didn't really see it," he admitted, shifting from foot to foot. "All I know is that Mickey's been boasting all year about how he's _so_ much more powerful than Wyatt or whatever and how, er... all of the 'Twice-Blessed' stuff was just nonsense."

"I see," Leo said slowly. It was obvious from his stance and the fire in his eyes – a fire that was generally seen in his wife as opposed to him – that he was already not a fan of this Mickey kid. He turned back to Wyatt, "So what happened today?"

"Chris just told you," Wyatt finally said, shrugging as though it wasn't a big deal. "Mickey decided to prove his theory right, so he jumped me. I fought back. That's all."

Then he turned, obviously planning to leave the room, but Leo wasn't having any of that. "Wyatt!"

The voice commanded that he stop, and just as proof that even if he didn't wear the black hat most of the time he still had it, the fourteen-year-old froze as though Piper had used her powers on him. After a moment, he slowly turned to look at his father once more.

A small smile appeared on Leo's face. "Did you win?"

Wyatt's face melted into a small smile as well. "Duh," he said, almost a little cockily.

Chris rolled his eyes.

"That's my boy," he joked, lightly. "But, Wyatt, no more fights, alright?"

The fourteen year old sighed. "I wouldn't get into anymore fights if I didn't have to go to Magic School. You know I don't like it there."

"Why not?" Chris asked, wide-eyed. "It's awesome!"

"Maybe for you," he muttered.

Leo frowned in worry. "Wyatt... we have already talked about this. Once you turn sixteen, you can decide if you want to continue to go to Magic School or not, but until then--"

"I have to; I know," he sighed. And this time he did leave the room.

- - -

Wyatt hated flying. And even worse, he hated free-falling into the ocean below the infamous Golden Gate Bridge. Without much of a thought, he orbed himself back to edge, where DJ was patiently waiting for him.

"Shit, do you hate being a whitelighter that much? Hey, you know, I've always wondered what would happen if one of you halfzies decided to hit the pavement. Would you become human, or stay half witch?" He chuckled to himself, but Wyatt could tell that he had something else on his mind besides the effects of Falling from Grace on the Halliwell children, something that would probably never be tested.

"DJ..." Wyatt sighed, trying to figure out how to explain something to his best friend that he hadn't even been able to tell Chris, the smart one in the family.

DJ was happy enough to share his sigh with Wyatt. Wyatt could tell that the young half-demon was worried about him. And, to tell the truth, Wyatt was beginning to get a little worried himself. He'd been at this time jump for... Wyatt counted the days in his head, but became too confused to continue. What he did know, was that he had jumped through time about 5 times now, and he wasn't exactly sure when things would stop.

DJ looked like he was about to say something. It usually only took about a millisecond for DJ to say what he wanted to say, no filter entailed, but under the circumstances Wyatt could see why it may be hard to word how strange he probably seemed to everyone else. While Wyatt waited for his friend to speak, he looked around the area in relief. _No doorways here._

"Wyatt...your brothers are worried about you. Not that I usually give a shit what that little snot-nosed James Dean thinks-but Chris is worried too. And I'm worried. You've seemed… totally out of it, like you're not all there, you know? You are all there, right?"

"God, yes, I am, okay? I've been trying to tell everyone what's going on, but nobody's even listened. Chris maybe started to, but then we were interrupted by a goddamn demon attack, and I couldn't even finish my fucking sentence! And of course, then I was thrown through yet another doorway which seem to be my own personal portals through Hell-"

"Woah, woah, woah, hold on there. Demon attack? I wasn't told about any demon attack."

Wyatt paused to look at him. "What day is it?"

"What? Why the hell does that matter?!"

"Will you just shut up and answer me? If I'm right, it's Tuesday and Chris has already moved on to a new demon."

"Congratulations, Nancy Drew! Tuesday does tend to follow Monday. But what the hell does this have to do with you acting all zombie?"

"Okay, to put it shortly, I have been jumping time two days at a time for the past week." Wyatt sat down, finally able to get this news off of his chest and say it out loud.

"But that doesn't make any sense. You've only been acting weird for a day or two. Last Monday you were at P3 just fine, like normal. We were drinking and you hit on that one chick, Drezela, remember? And I commented on how fucked up that name was?" DJ chuckled a little at the memory.

Wyatt started to get a little chill. He went back. He stopped going forward, something must have stopped him, because DJ was right, he did remember that Monday. He remembered the girl, the drinks, the new band, Chrysis Acts, that played. Chris made him help clean the club that day to make up for him leaving the living room as a total disaster the weekend before. Which was how their Mondays usually went, but Wyatt remembered every detail to that Monday, which would have been impossible had he gone forward in time.

He went back. He was back in time to last Tuesday.

Everything changed on him.

"DJ, something's going on with me and I'm really freaking out. And you know I don't freak out. CHRIS!" Wyatt called for his younger brother, hoping that he would have more success talking to him now than he did on Sunday.

And then he saw it. Clear as day, floating on the ocean water, was another black flower.

"DJ, do you see that flower?"

"What flower? What, are you a fucking Nymph, now? Wy, you are really acting weird here."

Just then, Chris orbed in. Unfortunately, he miscalculated, and landed too close to his older brother. Wyatt started to topple, and for a moment he thought he was going to fall.

Instead, he went through an archway.

Which wound up working just like a doorway.

- - -

"UUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!" Wyatt screamed out his frustrations at the top of his lungs in DJ's basement.

While DJ laughed incessantly in the corner.

Earlier, Wyatt had been told by his parents that he had to miss the celebration party for his hockey team after winning the cup this year. Everyone was invited, and that included Judy Dean.

She was his newest conquest and the hottest freshman in school. DJ found it quite hilarious that his best friend had to miss a chance with her. Oh well. That just meant more for him.

Every time Wyatt ever wanted to have any kind of fun, though, it seemed like his family always found a way to rope him into doing some kind of bullshit for the kiddies. His baby brothers, in particular, were still apparently not old enough to take care of themselves.

At 12 years old, Chris was certainly capable of taking care of himself. Wyatt had been taking care of himself at that age, not to mention watching out for Chris and Leo at the same time while their parents were off being the world's saviors. He didn't see why Chris couldn't just take on the job of babysitter for Leo.

Footsteps were heard overhead coming down to the basement. DJ shot a worried glance at Wyatt.

"Shit. Dad's coming! Is there any way you can become invisible?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll just pop on my invisibility cloak, Hermione! Just a second. Oh wait, this isn't Harry Potter!"

DJ rolled his eyes. "Will you just orb to a fucking closet, asshole?"

Wyatt laughed a bit. "You know, if that's what your language is like now, I would hate to hear it in 10 years."

"JUST GO!"

Derek Sr. came running down the stairs. "Now what in the hell was all that screaming about, DJ?"

DJ looked innocently at the ground. "Just getting some practice in before cheerleading auditions?"

Derek Sr. laughed. "That's not funny. Well, maybe just a bit, but what was Wyatt really doing down here?"

DJ did a double take. Dads were not supposed to be all-knowing. At least not mortal dads. "Oh, come on, Dad! I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Well, either Wyatt was down here just letting out a bit of his frustration, or the two of you were practicing demon fighting. Neither of which I would like, since you know how much I do not want you fighting demons. You know I didn't even want you keep your powers, but Piper was insistent in letting you keep them. And, Wyatt is grounded, you know that, and you know that I do not let escapees in my house. So, if you really want to go to that party that Wyatt isn't allowed to go to, I suggest you come clean." Derek Sr. looked smugly at his son, knowing that he won this battle.

DJ looked begrudgingly toward a closet on the far side of the room.

Derek looked too, "Wyatt, I suggest you orb home now. Your parents are very worried about you. And I don't suggest you orb anywhere else, since your Aunt Paige created that homing device. If you orb anywhere else, you'll be sent straight home anyway and will be found in more trouble than you imagined."

DJ looked sadly towards the closet and saw the blue light that sent his best friend home.

- - -

Before Wyatt could fall backward from his lack of balance, his back found the wall directly behind him and his forearms pressed harshly against the wallpaper, aiming for an anchor to keep him upright. His heart was pounding in his chest so loud that he was certain he could hear the drumbeats in his ears as well as feel the pulse jumping through his neck. He swallowed thickly, wondering what the hell he was going to do.

If he was susceptible to time jumps even when there were no doorways around, what the hell was he supposed to do? There was no safeguard. For all he knew, this was going to be his life for the rest of eternity or until... until Monday. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen on Monday. And it was going to be bad. He knew it.

He could feel it.

There was deep heavy feeling in his gut that was pulling at his consciousness, trying to warn him against something, trying to remind him of something, but it was just out of his line of thought. Instead, he was left with nothing but pure deep dread. There was almost a helpless quality to it, because now... now even his powers were failing him. Time had abandoned him. His powers. He couldn't stay in one place long enough to get help from his family. He was screwed. That was all there was to it.

He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the ground. The tiled floor dug into his tailbone as he looked up and around him at his location. He was back at the apartments, except this time he was in the lobby.

There had to be some pattern in his movements, right? Something that connected all of the places. From the apartment, to the hospital, to the club, to the bridge, and back to the apartment again... They were all places that he frequented often, but if that was the only connection, then he was screwed in figuring out where he was going to end up next. And if his theory was right, then the next jump would be his last chance to figure out what was going on before he wound up on Monday. But he still didn't even know how all of this was happening.

"Is there a reason you're sitting on the floor, young man?"

Wyatt snapped his head around and found the landlady, Alvira, bearing down on him with her hands on her hips and a pinched expression on her face. The blond witch quickly scrambled to his feet (he'd been taught to respect his elders, and he'd been taught that well). He glanced around him uncertainly, jaw dropped slightly as he searched for an answer.

"Ah, well..."

"Yes?" she prodded.

He was now standing at his full height, making her having to crane her neck slightly to look up at him, and yet - somehow - she still managed to make him feel somewhat small. It was the same power that his mother had. No matter how tall he got - and how tall he and his brothers had gotten had always been a mystery to the Halliwell family - his mother had always been able to intimidate him slightly. He smiled uncertainly down at Alvira, wondering how in the world she had the same power.

"I was... ah..."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"No. No, there's no reason," he muttered, casting his eyes down toward his shoes.

Alvira sighed. "Don't tell me Chris locked your voice recognition out of the apartment? Honestly, I know you left him high and dry on Monday, but that's no reason to lock your brother out into the cold."

Wyatt only took a moment to wonder how in the world his landlady knew what had happened Monday when even he didn't know before he realized that she had fallen into the same criteria again.

"Monday," he repeated, his mind reeling as he tried once again to process what was going on. There had to be a reason.

"If he's this angry at you, I would say that you two have some unresolved issues from when you were children," she said wisely.

The witchlighter rolled his eyes. "We do not have problems."

"All of life's answers can be found in our childhood, hun. It's the one time when everything makes sense, and the one place we never look."

"I see," he said slowly, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion wondering what in the world she was talking about now. "I'm just... going to go now..."

"Sometimes, the answer is right in front you," she continued, even as Wyatt turned his back on her and began to walk away, "and you just have to walk through the doorway to get to it."

That made Wyatt turn around once more to give her a strange look, but she only smiled mysteriously at him before turning around herself and walking back toward her office. He looked around, as though expecting someone to have been feeding lines to her, but he was alone now. He shook his head slightly before turning back toward the way he was going and froze. There, outside the glass exit doors was a single black flower. He set his jaw before walking through the doorway with determination, and he didn't even stumble this time when he appeared in the foyer of the manor.

Perfect.

He was going to get his answers this time.

- - -

He caught sight of a small brunette racing around the corner.

Wyatt sighed, before jogging after the vanishing visage only to come into an empty den. "Chris, Leo, will you two cut it out!? You're going to break something!"

The little nine-year-old came dashing through the room a second later. He only slowed down long enough to say, "You're no fun, Wy!" before disappearing into the kitchen.

The teenager bit back a growl. "I mean it! If you two don't cut it out--"

"You'll what, Wyatt?" Chris was suddenly at the den entrance with a perfect pout on his face. "We're just having a little fun."

"Yeah, haven't you heard of _fun_, Wy?" Leo teased, peeking out from the kitchen doorway, mischief in his eyes.

"I'll tell Mom, that's what," Wyatt threatened, but Chris just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, right," he laughed smartly. "I don't believe you."

And then he ran from the doorway and across the den toward the kitchen. Leo gave a small gasp and disappeared as Chris continued his chase of catching his brother. Wyatt groaned aloud as the two younger boys began to rough house in the foyer. He dragged himself through the room and entered the foyer just in time to see Leo wrestle his way out of Chris's grip and stumble into nearby corner table, causing the vase atop to lose balance and smash to the floor on top of one of the protective circles.

All three boys froze.

A small growl of annoyance fell past Wyatt's lips as he helped Little Leo find his balance again - checking for a second to make sure he was alright - before turning toward the vase. Both Chris and Leo avoided Wyatt's gaze.

"See?" he snapped. "This is why I didn't want you messing around!"

"Oh, c'mon, Wy! You can just fix it! I saw you do it before," Leo practically pleaded.

"Yeah, Wyatt," Chris added on, bobbing his head up and down. "Besides, it was an accident anyway. Not our fault!"

Wyatt opened his mouth, obviously ready to chew them out, but he simply sighed and shook his head. "Whatever." He flicked his wrist and the vase repaired itself before appearing back onto the table in a shower of orbs. He glared at his brothers. "Don't do it again."

Both of the boys, slightly more sober now, nodded before racing up the stairs. Wyatt let out an even bigger sigh before bending down to check the crystal. He moved it back where he thought it was in place again, but a crash from upstairs distracted him before he could check for sure. He gritted his teeth once more before forcing himself to orb upstairs instead of taking the stairs.

- - -

Wyatt walked through the foyer, glancing into the den and the kitchen as he went. They were both empty. He looked around himself, at his childhood home, almost feeling a little like a stranger being back here. "Mom?" he called up the stairs. "Dad?"

Silence was his only answer, which meant either his parents had gone deaf (unlikely) or they weren't there (a much more plausible explanation). He sighed and ran his hand through his hair as he forced himself to calm down and think rationally. If his theory was correct - and he was pretty sure it was - then this was last chance to figure out what the hell was going on before he was royally screwed.

He gritted his teeth slightly in frustration before calling out, "Chris!" He was really starting to get weary of explaining things again and again and again...

His brother, as predicted, appeared less than a minute later in a shower of orbs. He had a perfect 'what do you want?' expression on that he usually saved for Leo. Wyatt resisted the urge to roll his eyes; his little brother really needed to learn how to drop a grudge and get over everything.

"Chris, can you get the Book of Shadows for me?" he asked first thing, crossing over to the corner table and pulling a paper and pen out of the drawer.

"Are you kidding me? First off--"

"Chris!" Wyatt snapped, slamming the pen and paper back onto the table. It was sudden and loud enough that it seemed to startle the younger witch slightly. Wyatt drew in a deep breath, telling himself that his anger was unfounded, but it felt like every second spent explaining things was a second wasted. "Please? I'll explain everything in a second. Just orb down the Book of Shadows."

The look on the green-eyed student's face was one of skepticism, and - for a second - Wyatt was certain that Chris was going to start double-checking his identity (something that he really didn't need right now). However, after a moment of hesitation, Chris held out his hands and orbed the Book of Shadows to them. Wyatt finished what he was writing before walking over to him and taking the book.

"Thanks," he muttered before settling down on the floor, and placing the Book in front of him. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he began to flip through the pages anyway. If what was going on or what was happening to him wasn't in here, he didn't know what he would do.

"Okay..." Chris said slowly before he also climbed down onto the floor next to his brother. "You want to tell me what's going on now?"

Wyatt ran his tongue across the back of his teeth as he considered the question. He flipped the page. "I really don't know what's going on," he admitted.

"What-?"

"It started Monday," he said, cutting Chris off. By now, he was pretty much used to the routine questioning, and just wanted to get to the answers. "I had a weird ass dream, woke up two hours late, and my magic went a little wonky. Then suddenly it was Wednesday: I was at the hospital, I'd just finished a gig, and I was called in by Dr Yates. Then it was Friday: the apartment, Leo was there, apparently he'd gotten a job and had moved in permanently, and apparently I had helped him. Then it was Sunday: the club, you were there - there's going to be a demon attack tomorrow, by the way - and I was helping. Then back to Tuesday: top of the Golden Gate, talked to DJ, nearly fell to my death - if you were curious. Then Thursday: lobby of the apartments, talked to Alvira of all people - God, she creeps me out sometimes - and left. And then I ended up here, on Saturday, and I called you, because I was hoping that somewhere in that brain of yours you might have some sort of idea what's going on."

The look on Chris's face, however, told him the exact opposite. Wyatt wondered if he had spoken too fast.

"The only thing that's been consistent has been the fact that everybody has mentioned 'Monday' in one form or another and that there's always been this... black flower around somewhere. I don't know what it means," he continued, despite the lost look on his brother's face. "Oh, and it seems my powers aren't wanting to work correctly, either."

"Wyatt," Chris began a little weakly, and Wyatt looked up, hoping - despite reasoning - that his brother had the answer to all of his problems on the tip of his tongue. "What- I don't-"

The blond sighed, disappointed even though he knew he shouldn't be. "Chris, I have never stuck around in a place long enough to have a real conversation, let alone figure out what the hell is going on. Everything I've got, I've told you."

The worry that Wyatt felt seemed to expand tenfold as he continued to see the completely lost look settled on Chris's face.

Chris sighed. "Have you at least been around long enough to look at anything in the Book?"

"No, damnit, I already told you!" Wyatt's frustration seemed to expand with his worry. All he knew was that at any moment he would be thrown through some sort of doorway and that would be the end of this conversation. And then he would restart, and nothing would ever get solved. What was worse was that he didn't know what would happen at the end of his time jumping.

"Okay- Wyatt, first thing? Calm down. This isn't going to help anybody." And there was such a fierce look in Chris's green eyes that Wyatt actually made the effort to take a deep breath and let it out slowly in an attempt to calm himself down. "Now, second? Let me see if I'm hearing you correctly. You've been jumping through time, skipping a day each time until you got to Sunday and jumped backward to Tuesday, and you think whatever this is building up to is going to happen after this jump on Monday?"

Wyatt nodded. So his little brother had gotten what he was saying after all.

"And your powers?"

"Completely screwed to hell."

"But they're still there?"

"Yeah... but they aren't exactly listening to me at the moment." Wyatt frowned slightly. Of the three brothers, he had always been the one that had the least trouble controlling his powers. This was something new and terrifying to him that he couldn't quite put into words.

"Alright. Let's see it." Chris gestured toward the vase on the corner table.

Wyatt gave him a look. "Chris, I just said-"

"Humor me," was the deadpanned reply from his snarky younger brother.

Narrowing his blue eyes slightly, Wyatt gave a half shrug and looked at the vase. "Vase," he said simply holding out his hand. The vase disappeared in a shower of blue orbs before suddenly veering and crashing into the wall sending, sending shattered shards everywhere. Wyatt winced. "What did I tell you? Now Mom's going to kill me on top of everything else."

"Don't worry. I'll take the fall."

Wyatt looked toward Chris in surprise but refrained from commenting when he saw the look on his little brother's face. The wheels were visibly working in Chris's head, putting the pieces together much quicker and with greater accuracy than Wyatt could have ever managed. Then Chris was sitting next to Wyatt, using his telekinesis to flip through the book quickly. Wyatt stared at him. A small smile played his lips. Chris noticed him out of the corner of his eye.

"What?"

Wyatt blinked and shook his head. "Sorry. This just reminds me of when we were younger."

Chris adopted a puzzled expression.

"You. Me. Sitting cross-legged on the floor with the Book of Shadows. Generally it was midnight and in the attic, but this is close enough."

The brunette witch snorted at the image. "Right, right. Back when I had to beg you to let me take a look at the Book, because Mom and Dad wouldn't let me as I as 'too young'." He rolled his eyes with a slight grin.

"Yeah, so you always got me to do your dirty work for you." Wyatt was teasing, but he couldn't help the slight sadness that crept into his tone.

Chris quirked an eyebrow at him. "What's with you getting nostalgic all of a sudden?"

Wyatt shook his head and shrugged, turning back to the book.

The pages stopped turning. "Wyatt... you're worried."

He sighed. "I'm not worried."

"You're scared."

"I'm just... I don't have control over this situation, Chris, and, yeah, it scares the shit out of me. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know if I'm going to make it through this."

"Wyatt, you will-"

"I don't even know what 'this' is!" Wyatt gritted his teeth, staring off toward the wall but not seeing it at all. "I just can't shake the feeling that something really bad is going to happen. And if it does..." And here, Wyatt had to take a moment to swallow. "I want you and Leo to stay out of its way, okay?"

Chris just stared at him for a moment before shaking his head. "You've lost your mind."

"Chris-"

"No, if you think Leo and I are just going to stand by while something comes after our brother, then you really are full of shit, Wyatt. That's not going to happen. The sooner you get that through your head, the sooner we can help you." The fact that Chris was obviously seething at the thought that Wyatt was playing the Twice-Blessed card underhand was left unsaid, but they both knew it was there.

After a long silence, Wyatt finally nodded. "Okay. What's going on then?"

"That's what we need to figure out."

And with that, Chris began to flip through the book again, this time though, it was accompanied by a gust of air that flipped it open to a certain page. There, lying on the page, was a single black flower. Chris and Wyatt glanced at each other in confusion. Chris reached out to grab the flower but it faded and disappeared at his touch, revealing the picture of a demon beneath it. Wyatt furrowed his eyebrows staring at the picture of the woman on the page.

"She looks familiar," Wyatt said, tapping the picture.

Chris was still looking at his fingertips where the flower had disappeared a moment before. "I've seen that somewhere before."

Wyatt looked at him. "The demon?"

"No, the way the flower disappeared." He furrowed his eyebrows as he thought for a moment before turning to look at the page in the book instead. "The Black Lotus," he read aloud. "An ancient demon that plants her seed within adolescent children only to return ten years later to harvest them."

"Harvest them?" Wyatt made a face. "That doesn't sound good."

"No kidding," was his brother's dry reply. Chris ran his finger over the page and glanced at the next page and the page before with a frown. "That's all it says. No vanquish. Nothing."

Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "That's not good."

"It's _only_ not good if this is really what we're up against. It might not be."

Wyatt nodded, taking Chris's words as truth. All that was associated with this demon had been speculation. He stared at the book for a moment before turning to look at his brother. "What now?"

Chris sighed, glaring at the book for a moment before using his powers to continue to flip the page. He stopped. Wyatt glanced down at the page to see if it was anything important. He raised an eyebrow at his little brother.

"Chris...?"

"That's it!" Chris stared at him wide-eyed.

"What's it?"

"The flower!"

Wyatt was still lost. "What flower?"

"The black flower! Wyatt, keep up with me here. Did you see the way it disappeared when I touched it?" With each word, Chris seemed to get more and more excited.

"Uh... yes?"

"Did it seem at all familiar to you?"

Wyatt shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe?"

Chris sighed frustrated, running a hand through his hair, making it stand up in several directions. "Think, Wy! When you conjure something and somebody else touches it..."

Wyatt stared at him for a second before realizing that he was supposed to finish that sentence. "Um. It disappears?"

"Yes! JUST like that flower did!"

All that Chris was met with was a blank stare.

"Wyatt, I think you conjured that flower."

"What?" If Wyatt had been confused before, he was just about beyond hope now. "I didn't conjure that flower--"

"That you _know_ of." The fact that Chris seemed so triumphant about this only helped to annoy the older witch.

"What are you saying, Chris? That my powers have gone off and decided to start doing their own things? That they're on strike with me, but they're still working their mojo elsewhere?"

"No, Wyatt," and Chris had adopted an almost appeasing tone that so unlike the hotheaded brunette that Wyatt was taken aback for a second. "I think... your powers have been trying to warn you against something. Probably against her." As he spoke, Chris flipped back to the page with The Black Lotus, and Wyatt felt a shudder threaten to run up his spine at the image.

"I don't--"

"Think about it, Wyatt. Everything that has happened to you leading up to now can easily be attributed to your powers. Random flowers? Conjuration. Time travel? Projection. And on top of that, your other powers are out of whack, too. Your powers are trying so hard to warn you against this thing that they're going a little nutso while doing it."

Wyatt just stared at him. Then he blinked. "Chris... even if I did buy this - which I don't, by the way - are you trying to tell me that my powers have like a split personality from me? Because that's a little creepy and unsettling."

"Not a split personality. I think your powers are tapping into your subconscious. I think you know more about this demon than you realize, and your powers - your subconscious - is trying to warn you about it," Chris told him, a little more urgent now. "Your powers are powerful, Wy. Something like this happening isn't that much of a long shot. I mean... look at what happened to Billie."

Wyatt's face crumpled, and he looked away in disgust. "Yeah, thanks for reminding me."

"I'm not saying that's going to happen to you!" Chris sighed, realizing what it had sounded like. "I'm just saying... your power tapping into some of your forgotten memories is not as farfetched as it sounds."

The blond witch chewed on his lip thoughtfully. "Even if this is true... what am I supposed to do now?"

The younger brother looked just as loss as Wyatt did. "I don't know... try to remember?"

"Chris... I can't." He was staring down at the Book of Shadows so hard that he was certain he was going to burn a hole through it. "I know I recognize her, but it's more like it's from a dream--" He cut himself up, looking up with a sudden realization. Chris gave him a quizzical look. "I had a dream about her!"

Chris gave him a dry look. "Trying to steal my powers now, Wy?"

"No! I mean... of her... when I was like... fourteen or so."

Worry spread across Chris's face. "Fourteen? Wyatt, that would be ten years." He looked down at the book. "'...Only to return ten years later to harvest them.' She might be coming for you."

Wyatt looked from his brother down to the book before up again. "There's no way to stop her if she is, is there?"

Chris swallowed. "Wyatt--"

"No. There's no way. At least not in the book. Look, you have two days to figure out everything you can about this demon, but the second I walk through some sort of doorway, I'm out of here." And Wyatt was surprised at how calm he sounded. It was as though he had been panicking through this entire ordeal that now that he had answers - no matter how terrifying they were - he didn't have to worry as much. "I trust you, Chris."

The younger witch appeared to search Wyatt's face for a moment before nodding. "I think you should go."

Wyatt blinked. "What?"

"I think you should get up and go." Wyatt just stared at him, and Chris offered a smile. "Don't worry. I'll be ready for you when you show up on Monday."

Then Wyatt smiled back and nodded. "I know." He stood, stretching his legs as he did so. Chris watched him from the ground. Chris was a great liar, but Wyatt could still make out the tension in his baby brother from worry and anxiety. "See you Monday," he grinned, before heading off as though he were going to walk into the kitchen.

He never made it, just as he expected. He was back in the kitchen in their apartment, about to step into the living room. Right where it had all started.

- - -

Chris and Leo had gone to bed at least an hour ago. Wyatt looked up at the big grandfather clock with a sigh. He still had so much homework that he hadn't gotten to because of his brothers. It wasn't even as though he really wanted to do it, but just the fact that it was there sitting waiting for him when he would have probably dragged himself to do it before now...

It was frustrating.

But he couldn't blame them. It wasn't every day that the three of them got the entire manor to themselves. Not that Wyatt really knew the freedom of that since he constantly had to babysit his little brothers when this would happen, but... he couldn't blame them for having a little fun.

Wyatt dropped the pen to the table. It would have to wait until tomorrow because he wasn't going to get anything done tonight. Not when he was already this tired. He stuffed the papers into his backpack; he would have liked to just leave it lying out, but the last time he did that, demon guts splattered all over it. (Try explaining that one to a mortal teacher - it usually doesn't go over too well).

He moved toward the stairs to head up to his room when he noticed the crystal by the corner table that he had fixed earlier after Leo had dropped the vase on it. It wasn't glowing when it should have been; it hadn't reconnected the protective ward that was placed around the house after all. Wincing at his own idiocy, Wyatt went over to the crystal and moved it back into the position it was supposed to be in. It flared brightly with magic for a second before returning to a dim yellow glow.

He stared at it for a moment before standing and turning to head back upstairs. Then, he noticed the silence.

He slowly walked up the stairwell, but it was silent, empty, dark. That was unusual. A place so filled with life to see it this silent and dark was strange. And eerie. His bare feet pressed into the carpeted steps as he climbed the stairs, one right after another, and his hand trailed along the railing as he went. He could feel an unexplainable nervousness rising up in his chest, but he tried to push it away. The house was dark because Leo and Chris were asleep. There was nothing creepy about that.

Wyatt gritted his teeth in aggravation and told himself to stop.

And then - was that footsteps that he heard coming from upstairs?

He paused, his stomach leaping into his throat for a moment, before running up the stairs, taking two at a time. He raced down the hallway, his breath quickening with his movements. It was silent now with no signs of movement, but he was certain that he had heard something. He sped straight toward Leo and Chris's room, his protective instincts jumping into place immediately as he threw open the door, ready for anything.

Leo and Chris were blissfully asleep, totally unaware of their brother having just stampeded into their room and totally unaware of the woman that stood in their room between both of their beds. She was beautiful and tall with olive skin and flowing dark hair. For a moment, Wyatt was struck by her beauty, but his protectiveness for his brothers ran over that quickly.

Then, the door behind him slammed shut. Wyatt jumped and spun around, tugging at the door but it stayed firmly closed. He slowly turned back toward her trying not to show the fear that he felt.

"Who are you?" he asked darkly and a little loudly, almost hoping to rouse Chris or Leo from their sleep. The powers of telekinesis and freezing would be quite helpful right about now.

Neither stirred.

The demon (for Wyatt was sure she was a demon) grinned, as though he had just said something quite amusing. "My dear, there's no reason for you to know that."

"I am _not_ your 'dear'," Wyatt hissed, disgusted, even as his heart pounded in his ears.

His eyes darted around, searching for something that he could throw at her or anything that could help him in his situation. He felt powerless.

"Don't bother trying to use your powers; it will just be a wasted effort."

Wyatt stared at her, his blue eyes widening in fear as she began to come near him. He ignored what she said, raising his hand to send his force field out. Nothing happened. He tried not to seem too fearful, but his hand shook as he dropped it back to his side and that wasn't the only part of him that was shaking. "What did you do to my powers?"

"Nothing. There's just a brief ward over this room to stop any powers from being used. Luckily, I had most of the night to put it up. Thanks for that."

The fourteen-year-old witch felt sick to his stomach as she continued to advance on him as one would advance on their pray. And he realized that's what he was. Her prey. His back found the closed door as he tried to stumble away from her, but he was trapped. She grabbed his face then, forcing him to look at her even as she smirked down at him.

"Don't worry, my dear, you won't remember this in the morning."

He almost wanted to retort that he wasn't her 'dear' again, but then... she did something odd. She kissed him, leaned down to his height to kiss him, and his blue eyes widened in surprise and shock. But slowly... so slowly, as he felt his energy draining as it was sucked from his body, and his world slowly turned back, his eyes slid shut and his body went limp. But he was still fighting to stay conscious.

And she knew that, even as she finally let go of him and let his body fall into a heap on the floor and whispered one last thing to him: "See you in ten years."

- - -

Wyatt walked right back into his apartment's living room where Chris was waiting for him. Chris had his TC in front of him, along with a couple of vials of potions, candles, written (what he guessed was) spells, and bags full of different mixtures of herbs. Immediately, Chris tossed one of the bags to him.

"Great, right on time. Hold this." Wyatt looked confused as Chris pulled a piece of paper out and began reading.

"Um… Chris-?"

"Just… quiet for a second.

_Terra, Ignis, Aqua, all three,  
__Elements of astral I summon thee ,__  
Earth by Divinity, Divinity by Earth,  
Give the enemy the power to see,  
The strength of the elements by Wyatt's side,  
No rules magic we shall abide,  
Now when his enemy meets his downfall,  
This spell will have no power left at all,  
In no way shall this spell reverse  
Or place upon us any curse  
So mote it be."_

Nothing happened. Wyatt looked at Chris for a second and started laughing.

"Was that a _Wiccan_ spell?!" Wyatt laughed for a second longer, until he saw the look of sadness on Chris' face. He looked really disappointed, as if he thought that the elementary spell would work. "It sounds almost as bad as my 6th grade haiku." He said apologetically.

"I found it online. I thought it was worth a shot." Chris put the paper down slowly. Wyatt thought that was strange-instead of burning it like they usually would. It was almost as if he didn't want to jinx it-as if it actually did have some power behind it.

"So what is all this? And how did you know when I'd be here?" Wyatt didn't move much. Even though he knew that things only changed when he was in a doorway, he would much rather be safe than sorry. "Was there any luck with finding a vanquish or anything? Where's Leo?"

"Okay, okay, slow down. All of this," he indicated to everything on the coffee table, "is about 501 ways to vanquish a demon. I have candles for summoning and protection, potions that are both lethal and possibly illegal, 30 different spells-although they're probably just the same spell rewritten, bags of herbs, and the TC is out if we can get more information in the next couple of minutes. I had a premonition that showed me the clock, which I have to say is almost too lucky. And Leo is getting trained for Bartender status, but I told Jake that he was on call for us. Are there any more questions before this psychotic demon shows up?"

"So...you didn't find a vanquish?"

Chris sighed. "No. But don't worry. We'll figure it out in the middle of the battle. One of these has to work, right?"

Wyatt trusted Chris. He really did, but it was starting to look a little bit like his life depended on chance. And he did not like chance. And neither did Chris.

Chris had run out of options. And that worried the hell out of Wyatt.

Chris turned around and started picking up different potions. "One of these is to blind her. I read somewhere that her seduction has something to do with her eyes. Maybe if she can't see she can't--"

He glanced toward Wyatt and froze. For a moment, Wyatt thought that Chris was looking at him, but then he realized that his brother was looking past him. Wyatt slowly turned around. Standing behind him was the woman from his dreams (and even as he thought that, he realized how ironic it was). She smiled, and it made Wyatt's blood run cold.

She slowly began to stalk toward him. Wyatt backed away, shooting a suddenly panicked look toward Chris as he realized that not only was there suddenly a very uncomfortable feeling growing in his chest, but he couldn't orb.

Chris dropped the potions he had in his hands and picked up the clearest of the pile as he called toward the ceiling. "Leo! Get your ass over here _right now_!"

"Chris. I can't orb." Wyatt's back found a wall, and he gritted his teeth trying his shield, his powers, his tele-orbing, anything. None of it was working. There was a block. He winced slightly, gripping at his chest, realizing that whatever was there – that was the block. He secretly longed to run back to that kitchen doorway, but he had a feeling that somehow, it wouldn't work this time.

_Why didn't I label these?!_ Chris thought frantically as he threw the potion bottle in his hand at the Black Lotus. It shattered against her silk dress.

Nothing happened.

"Chris! Was that fucking _water_?!"

A shower of orbs later and Leo was standing in the middle of the living room. He had a puzzled look on his face.

"Water? What water?"

His appearance gave the distraction that Wyatt needed to slip past her. With her eyes on Leo's form, Wyatt reared his arm back and punched her cleanly across the face sending her surprised form tumbling to the ground.

For a moment, he wanted to celebrate, but then he realized just why that had seemed almost too easy.

She pulled herself to her feet and stared at him with dark eyes. "That wasn't very nice."

Chris looked at her with frightened eyes, and Leo looked stunned at her beauty. Wyatt stumbled backwards for a moment before Chris jumped into the action, throwing another potion bottle (that did nothing).

Chris looked at Leo, who now stood in her path to Wyatt. "Leo, you idiot! Blow her up!"

He glanced at his brother for a moment before raising his hands up and flicking his fingers out toward her. Nothing was happening. "Goddamnit!" he cursed, a little panicked as he continued to flick her hands and she started toward him – or rather, toward Wyatt. Finally, a freeze got through – but it did nothing more than seem to cause her to hesitated in her movements.

"It's my turn." She clenched her fist, holding it out toward the eldest brother, and twisted it.

Wyatt screamed in agony, falling to his knees.

"What are you doing to my brother?!" Chris screamed at her.

He threw another potion, but just like the others, it didn't work. It was taking too long for him to find that blinding potion, and his brother's life was in the balance in the midst of it all. Finally, he did what he knew would at least do something. He utilized his hovering skill combined with his telepathy, and roundhouse kicked her in the head.

Finally, she turned around.

Wyatt felt the pressure in his chest let up and shakily he brought himself back to his feet, his body quivering beneath his weight. But he couldn't just lie there and do nothing.

She gave Chris a look and for a moment, he felt the fear that Wyatt must have been feeling since this whole ordeal began. Then she was striking out and catching the green-eyed witch in the chest, sending him flying across the room and crashing into the mantel wall.

Leo and Wyatt winced as they saw their brother crash into the opposite wall.

"Shit! Chris!" Wyatt called out, trying to find out if his brother was alright.

But then the demon was looking in their direction again, and Leo - despite being the youngest and having been guarded his entire life - jumped in front of his older brother protectively. She smiled, as though amused, before raising a hand toward him and flicking her wrist, using her own demonic form of telekinesis, sending him flying over Wyatt's head into the opposite wall. Wyatt spun toward Leo, but had not even started to head toward him before the pain flared up in his chest again. He called out, dropping to his knees in agony as the pain this time doubled tenfold.

"This has been fun boys," she said silkily, "but I've grown bored of your games."

Through the pain and the screaming, Wyatt heard none of this.

Chris pulled himself up to his feet, ignoring his bruised ribs, his eyes on his brother's collapsed form. Across the room, Leo had crawled over to Wyatt, ignoring the gash on his own forehead. Chris turned his gaze onto the Black Lotus, his teeth clenching.

"Leave him the fuck alone!"

The middle Halliwell threw his arm out, sending his telekinesis to the woman, but just as he did, she held up her own hand, and he felt his own magic rebound band, canceling the attack. Her eyes were still focused on Wyatt and somehow, she had managed to successfully block his attack.

"Chris, what the hell are we supposed to do!?" There was panic in Leo's voice.

Chris turned back toward him, realizing that Wyatt had stopped screaming, and his breath caught in his breath as he realized exactly why. Instead, it was obvious that Wyatt was now choking as red specks of blood started to decorate his lips, and after one awful sounding cough, more blood - like vomit - was thrown up. His face was so pale; he looked like a ghost already.

And for a moment, Chris was frozen, certain they had already lost.

Then Leo's voice was cutting through his shock. "Chris, tell me what I'm supposed to do!" And the middle witch realized that his little brother had his hands hovering between Wyatt's shoulder blades, and they were glowing, healing him as the damage was created, and something clicked.

"Leo, freeze him!"

Leo's gaze shot toward him with a panicked, confused look. "What!?"

"Just do it!"

"Chris, I can't freeze Wyatt!"

"LEO! Freeze the damn shit INSIDE of him!"

Then it appeared to click in Leo's head as his face formed a look of understanding.

"And the second you do," Chris continued, suddenly really worried about whether or not this would actually work, "start healing him!"

Leo gave a jerky nod, hesitated, and then the glow faded as he flicked his hands in a freeze. Wyatt gasped before collapsing completely to the ground limp. Leo's eyes widened as he immediately tried to start healing him again. Chris glared toward Wyatt's limp body, his hand stretched out, and felt a surge of triumph flow through him as several blue orbs were pulled from Wyatt's body and formed above it.

He turned to the demon. "Go back to Hell, bitch."

Then he threw the orbs - the seed - toward the demon, landing it within her. She gasped in surprise as the sudden intrusion, her big brown eyes turning toward Chris in astonishment.

"What have you done?" she gasped out. Then she was screaming before finally exploding.

Chris turned away.

"Wyatt? Wyatt!" Leo was calling out. The healing glow of his hands had faded as he felt his powers telling him that there was nothing left he could do, but his brother still wasn't moving. He reached down and shook him, shouting his name once more before the blond gasped awake.

Leo sighed as Wyatt pushed himself up into a sitting position, and unable to stop himself in his and Chris's combined relief, the youngest brother threw his arms around Wyatt in a fierce hug. Wyatt just leaned against him, dizzy and exhausted.

Chris collapsed into a chair. "Don't you... ever... do that again."

Wyatt's blue eyes just stared at him sleepily before managing a small nod.

--

Song: "Come Together" by the Beatles

Leo Jr. was standing behind the bar at P3, serving drinks while Chris cringed while watching him. It was clear that Chris was a little wary of having Leo tend bar, even if he made the promise. Despite Chris' worries, however, he seemed to be very natural at making and serving the drinks. He still had a "superior" bartender standing over his shoulder to make sure that he wouldn't wind up putting vodka in a margarita or giving someone a Long Island Iced Tea instead of the Sex on a Beach that they ordered.

Wyatt sat at the bar and took a shot before handing that in for his normal beer. After the week that he had, he needed one.

Chris turned to him. "So, anyway… Leo's tending bar, if you haven't noticed. I agreed to let him stay with us permanently-"

"With a little prodding from Mom." Leo butted in before mixing up a Dead Man's Screw.

"AND... I think that's pretty much it. Oh, and you went on a date with Britney. She might be here tonight, by the way."

Wyatt stared at him. "Britney? I didn't, um, have sex with her while I wasn't really here, did I?"

"How should I know? I don't keep tabs on your sex life."

"Right… it's just… I hear she's clingy." Wyatt grumbled a bit, afraid that she was going to show up soon looking for another date. DJ walked up at that moment.

"Is this the old Wy or the zombie shit?" DJ clapped him on the back. Wyatt gritted his teeth against the phantom pains in his chest.

"Zombie shit?" he asked, clearing his throat to try to hold wince from the phantom pains even while both his brothers gave him worried looks.

"Oh, they haven't told you the best part yet?" DJ grinned, almost too excited about this.

Wyatt glanced between his brothers and best friend. "What?"

DJ continued to grin. "Well, while your mind was absent, you were still wandering around; it was just a little obvious that something was missing up there. Almost like you had tried to solve world hunger, failed, and were now a little brain dead."

Leo snickered, having to put down the bottle he was holding as he did. "So even if you did sex Britney up, you probably sucked in the sack."

Wyatt glared daggers at his little brother, suddenly wishing that he had something to throw at the youngest (and most annoying) Halliwell, but before he could open his mouth to retort, he felt a feminine hand come to rest on his shoulder.

"Hey, Wyatt," a similarly feminine voice said.

The blond witch slowly turned to look at a woman that was definitely not Britney, but he had no idea who she was otherwise. He smiled, not having to force it at the sight of a hot girl.

"Hey..."

"Trish," Chris hissed into his ear.

"Trish," he repeated with a bright smile.

She smiled, obviously pleased at his memory. "Just wanted to come by and say hi and let you know that I was here again tonight if you want to join me." And she let her hand linger on his shoulder for a moment before letting it drop.

"Sounds good," he said.

She smiled one last time before turning and walking away. Wyatt blatantly stared after her.

"And who was that?"

Leo and DJ shrugged.

Chris grinned. "That would be the girl whose number you got last night while you were supposed to be working."

"And why didn't you mention her?"

"She didn't seem interested in you. I figured I wouldn't get your hopes up."

Wyatt gave Chris a dry look. "Well, obviously you were wrong. Now, I'm going to go enjoy being alive. Goodbye, gents." He grabbed his beer and walked off in the direction that Trish had gone.

DJ raised an eyebrow. "Did he just call us 'gents'?"

Leo laughed shaking his head as he went back to work.

--

Sound: Music Fades

It was that same world. Chris knew that it was, even if he found himself different, younger, looking into a past that wasn't his own and yet - at the same time - it was. Things just weren't the same. Not at all.

The three of them - his mother, brother, and him - were sitting around the TC. It was movie night. His dad wasn't there. He was never there. _The Mummy_ was on. Wyatt was texting.

_"So who're you texting, Wy?"_

_"Probably whoever you were trying your cool look out for, right?"_

Harmless teasing.

_"Shut up!"_

_"Wyatt, your brother and I are just teasing."_

_"I don't care! It's none of your business!"_

_"Wyatt!" _

Then he was storming off. So defensive for someone so young.

A flash.

_"Mom, I have plans! I am not going to sit around and watch Chris while you try to pointlessly save the world again!"_

_"Wyatt, I will not tolerate you speaking to me like this! And you will watch your brother--"_

_"No, I won't! I already have plans! Get Dad to do something for a change and watch him instead!"_

_"Wyatt--"_

_"Hell, ship him off to Aunt Phoebe or grandpa's place for all I care! But I'm not ruining my weekend because you think that going after some damn demon is more important than staying home with Chris."_

"_Wyatt, we don't have a choice—"_

_"Yeah, right, Mom. We all have a choice."_

A flash.

_"Wyatt, your little brother has a very important Spelling Bee tonight--"_

_"Whoop-dee-do. I don't have to be there for him to know how to spell."_

_"You should be there to support your brother!"_

_"Is Dad going to be there? ...I didn't think so. I'm going out."_

_"Wyatt Matthew Halliwell, don't you walk out that door! Don't you dare walk out that door! WYATT!"_

A flash.

Chris found himself a little frightened as he orbed into the kitchen following his brother. He didn't have to have empathy to see how dangerous his brother was at the moment even if being afraid of his brother was a strange new feeling. A moment later, there was another flurry of orbs, and they were both shocked to find their father standing there.

_"Wyatt Matthew Halliwell, what the hell do you think you were doing using your powers on Mickey Jones?"_

_"He deserved it."_

_"How, exactly, did he deserve it?"_

_"He's been giving me a look all year."_

_"A look? You almost - Wyatt, you almost KILLED that boy because he was giving you a LOOK."_

_"He was asking for it."_

_"Wyatt!"_

_"I'm out of here."_

_"Christopher!"_

_"...What?"_

_"Why weren't you watching your brother!?"_

_"What!?"_

A flash.

_"Halliwell, I thought you were grounded."_

_"I'm supposed to be."_

_"You know, for a witch, you're not as goody-two-shoes as I thought you would be."_

_"For a demon, you're not as dumb as I thought you would be either. So, are we going to do this or not?"_

_"Sure. I'll show you mine if you show me yours."_

Chris, listening from around the corner, closed his eyes and orbed out. As he orbed out, he heard:

_"What was that!?"_

_"I don't know... but I'll find out._"

A flash.

_"Chris, I'm leaving now."_

_"What? But, Wyatt... you're supposed to be watching me."_

_"And... I'm leaving. So, be a big boy and don't cry about it, okay? I'm sure you won't die."_

_"But, Wyatt, Mom said--"_

_"Mom said this. Mom said that. You always going to do what Mom said, Chris?"_

_"But... Wyatt... I don't..."_

_"Get. Over it. I'm out of here."_

And he was left standing there alone.

A flash.

Chris lied on his bed, staring at the wall, trying to sleep. He was twelve-years-old and terrified of being in the manor all by himself.

_"Hello, there, my dear."_

He sat up quickly and turned to see a beautiful demon.

_"Who are you!?"_

_"My dear, there's no reason for you to know that. And don't you worry your pretty little head. You won't remember this in the morning."_

Chris sunk back into bed fearfully as the demon advanced toward him. Then there were orbs and lights. Wyatt was there.

_"Back off, bitch._"

And with a simple blink of his eyes, she burst into flames.

The younger boy continued to stare fearfully at his powerful brother.

Chris's eyes flew open, his heart pounding, as he realized that Wyatt slept in the room next to his. He had to get away from here. This wasn't safe. For all he knew, his brother would come in and--

And what?

Chris threw his legs over the side of the bed, trying to slow his heart rate as he knitted his eyebrows together trying to push away this irrational fear. Wyatt was his brother whom he loved and had grown up with adoring. There was no reason why he should be afraid of him.

Either way, he still jumped enough to accidentally telekinetically throw his books off his side table when the door of his bedroom suddenly opened.

Leo stared in, just as startled.

Chris cleared his throat. "Something you need?"

Leo shrugged, a little bashful. "No, sorry. I just... you know... you were really scared. I thought something was wrong."

For a moment, Chris was confused as to how he knew that before he remembered his little brother's power that he was slowly getting a hang of after all these years. Chris shook his head, forcing a smile. "It was just a dream. Don't worry about it."

Still sensing the residual fear that Chris knew he was still feeling, Leo raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Some dream." But he respectfully left the room anyway.

Chris stared at the door for a moment before turning to look at the wall. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. It was just a dream.

The past was the past and Wyatt had never been that... frightening to him. So why couldn't he shake this feeling?

* * *

Next Episode: "The Eleventh Hour"


	5. Episode Four

**Disclaimer**: We still do not own Charmed. If we did, the first season would have never been written. Gosh, slow people.

**Summary**: When a demon attacks the manor, Piper makes a disturbing discovery: The Book of Shadows is no longer protecting itself against evil. This calls for an emergency family meeting as everybody in the Charmed family comes together to race against the clock - and against the demons - to figure out what is going on and save the Halliwell family legacy.

**Author's Note**s: Just a reminder: There are two people writing this fic. This is Kaye as always. O'Tuachair is off in St Louis doing her college thing.

As you just heard, college has taken over our lives. How we've come so far so quickly, I'll never know, but we never meant to neglect this fanfic as much as we have. Either way, I hope you enjoy this next installment of _The Phoenix Trials_. This is when the real plot behind this "season" begins. Also, we've realized that the website has removed all of our scene breaks. That's highly annoying, so we'll be trying to go through and fix this for your reading pleasure.

Constructive criticism is welcome!

Enjoy!

* * *

**The Phoenix Trials**

**Chapter Four: The Eleventh Hour**

GUEST STARS:  
MILANO, Alyssa... Phoebe Halliwell  
WEBSTER, Victor... Coop Halliwell  
RAY, Charlie... Prudence 'Ladybug' Halliwell  
MARANO, Vanessa... Patricia 'Firefly' Halliwell  
ALLEN, Tessa... Penelope 'Bumblebee' Halliwell  
MCGOWAN, Rose... Paige Matthews-Mitchell  
SERGEI, Ivan... Henry Mitchell  
RATHBONE, Jackson... Henry Mitchell, Jr.  
HALE, Lucy... Julia Helen Mitchell  
SCODELARIO, Kaya... Melody Samantha Mitchell

The evening was quiet and calm as Piper and Leo Sr. settled into bed, ready to get some rest after the day's activities. Just about ready to doze off, Piper nearly missed it when the crystals that sat upon her desk began to glow. The Halliwell Matriarch groaned and threw the covers off with frustration.

It was just past eleven o'clock, and Leo had to get to Magic School in the morning. Midterms were almost over, so Leo had to prepare all of the progress reports to be sent out to the parents of the children (at least, Piper reminded herself, to the guardians' who cared). Piper was grateful that Paige had a door permanently installed from their house to Magic School awhile ago. All Leo had to do now was touch a crystal that could read his hand print and say his name, and then he was there. Piper could think back to a time when he couldn't get anywhere without magical help.

Leo grabbed her arm. "Let Paige get it. You know she'll probably be here in less than a minute anyway."

The crystals glowing meant that something that was not supposed to be there was in the attic. It was a lot less worrisome and just more of nuisance by now.

Piper chuckled and put her hand on her husband's. "Honey, she's taking her first vacation without the kids since they took in Junior. I don't think her and Henry are going to stop in the middle of whatever they're doing so that she can take care of a measly demon."

Piper looked at Leo with a touch of suggestion in her eyes; after thirty years, she was still in love with him. She smiled to herself and realized how some things would never change. Demons would still be running all over this house in sixty years, and she would love Leo Wyatt until well after she was the High Priestess in the spirit world.

"Are we talking about the same Paige?" Leo asked, innocently.

Piper laughed and threw a robe on. Demon or not, she wasn't about to let anybody see her undressed. She leaned over and kissed her husband. "I'll be back in five."

"Make it three and we have a deal."

"Deal."

Leo rolled over and covered himself back up. He would be fast asleep in less than two, she was sure.

Piper went upstairs and threw the attic door open.

What she saw surprised her more than anything. The demon she saw was normal - no upper level demon qualities that she knew of - but she still felt a chill travel up her spine as her eyes landed on him.

He was standing there holding the Book of Shadows, her family lineage, the sacred book that was supposed to protect itself from evil. But it wasn't. She felt betrayed after the thirty years of counting on it. The Book was almost always that one thing that she could depend on not getting into the wrong hands.

Piper blinked. The demon exploded. The book fell to the ground with a loud _thud_. Piper walked to it cautiously. There was a part of her that wondered if suddenly the book had decided to switch it's concept of good and evil and would then protect itself from her when she got too close. But it didn't. She walked to it and picked it up delicately in her hands. She looked around the attic in confusion, looking for an answer. At the moment, for some reason, it was just a book.

And to Piper, that was even worse.

She took the book out of the attic and made her way to her bedroom. There was another set of small crystals that she had in her room in a chest in the closet. Piper set it in a safe Leo had installed in the room (something about having lived through the Depression, she guessed), surrounded it with the emergency crystals, and used another crystal to lock the safe door.

Phoebe and Paige would be by in the morning; they both had the other crystals that would notify them if she had to use the emergency one.

It was as magically protected as she could get it. Although, she cursed herself for not getting a protection spell out of the book before she closed the safe.

Opening Credits Roll  
Theme Song: "Fallen Angels" by Aerosmith

Song: "Home" by Chris Daughtry

Wyatt walked through the apartment as he drained the soda in his hand. He tossed it into a nearby trashcan, using a bit of last minute magic to actually make it in. He grinned and did a little victory dance as he ignored the fact that he kind of cheated to make it actually drop into the goal. He kicked Leo's passed out form in the living room as he passed by without much restraint. Little Leo's sleeping form immediately curled up as he groaned in on himself.

Wyatt chuckled and shook his head. Leo's late shifts at the club were starting to wear in on the nineteen-year-old, but Wyatt figured they could live with that. At least he wasn't coming home piss-ass drunk and passing out. It was only exhaustion that was causing the teenager to pass out on the floor. But, to be honest, Wyatt was sure that if he and Chris had the ability to sleep anywhere like their little brother, they would have been doing the same thing with how their lives had been lately.

The blond witch sidled up to Chris's room and banged on the door.

"Chris! Get up! We have a family emergency! That means you too, Leo," he added, looking at the slowly waking up form of his baby brother.

"Why the fuck did you have to kick me?" the sleepy brother mumbled.

"Because I could," was his older brother response.

The door to Chris's room swung open, and the bleary-eyed film student stood staring at him in nothing but his boxers. "Wyatt..." he groaned, running a hand over his face, "it's six o'clock in the fucking morning _and_my day off. What are you-?"

"I already said. Family emergency. And I don't just mean us. Mom is calling everybody. She wouldn't tell me what's up, but whatever it is, it's big." He looked between his two brothers who were staring at him as though not quite understanding. "In other words, get dressed! Unless you guys don't mind showing up half-dressed and reeking of alcohol."

The two younger brothers looked down at themselves, a little confused.

Chris shook his head to get the grogginess of sleep out of his system before turning a glare onto Wyatt. "Fine. I'll be ready in one minute. And, Leo, you better be, too," he yawned and went back into his room, slamming the door behind him.

Leo stood up, already peeling off his shirt as he went. "I'm going to need more than one minute," he muttered. Before he entered his room, he looked back at Wyatt with a confused look on his face. "And why are you so goddamn chipper?"

Wyatt gave an ironic look. "Oh, you know me. I've already been up for five hours working at the hospital. I love my life."

Leo grinned and disappeared into his room as Wyatt grimaced.

- _FADE TO BLACK _-

As Chris walked into his old living room, he was immediately confronted with the undoubtedly loud noise that was his family. All six of his cousins, plus the Aunts and their husbands, and of course, his own two brothers, mother, and father were crowded into the room. His mother, Piper, stood at the head of the room with his Aunt Paige. They both looked equally stern and upset at something. Aunt Phoebe ran around the room, greeting and admittedly crushing her nieces and nephews in her death hugs; before joining her sisters at the front of the room, adapting the same face. _This must be demon related, _Chris thought, recognizing the look with better ease than the rest of the cousins would. He was the second eldest of his generation, after all.

Their seriousness, however, did not affect the numerous amounts of squeals coming from the abnormal amounts of teenage girls. The brothers' eyes twitched in equal annoyance. Chris and Wyatt snuck a peek at Leo Jr, both having realized that this was a bit of a test for the youngest Halliwell of Piper's Clan.

Little Leo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. All of the cries of "Oh MY GOD" were getting to him. He was ready to be excited with the girls, but combined with the Charmed Ones' and their husbands' worries, angers, and frustrations, _plus_his brothers' worry and helicopter-hovering, he was trying everything he could to keep his hands from flicking outward. He was happy that it was still necessary to use his hands in order to activate his powers, unlike his mother, who needed only to look at something.

Piper, as impatient as always, only gave them another few minutes before she began to try to get everybody's attention. From where the brothers were standing near the back of the room, huddled near the foot of the stairs while they watched their mother, the Matriarch of the Halliwell line, at the front of the room, they couldn't hear her. There was too much chatter going on. She tried several more times, Phoebe chiming in with her own loud voice, but the wrath and voice of the teenage girls seemed to completely overwhelm anything that they wanted to say. At some point, Junior had dodged his sisters and ran over to join them, leaving the four lone boys of the newest generation of Halliwells to watch in apparent awe and horror as their cousins (and in Junior's case, twin sisters) managed to drown out even the Charmed Ones.

That was truly a miracle.

"EVERYBODY!" Piper screamed. Nobody listened.

Paige put a calming hand on Piper's shoulder. "Piper, honestly, give it up. They aren't all going to listen at the same time."

"Well, they damn well better listen!" Piper's frustration got the better of her. From the back of the room, a vase exploded and shocked everybody in silence.

Wyatt blinked twice. "Well, that worked."

Piper pinned him with a warning glare, and he quickly zipped his mouth shut and threw away the key with a gesture of his hands. She nodded, satisfied, before turning to the rest of the family. It seemed as though the exploding vase had done more than get everybody's attention; it had finally allowed the seriousness of the situation to sink in. How serious it was, the boys still didn't know, but from the stormy look that clouded all three of the Charmed Ones' faces, it wasn't good.

Piper took a breath. "The Book has stopped protecting itself."

"Wait... what exactly do you mean "The Book isn't protecting itself anymore?" The Book of Shadows?" Phoebe asked Piper incredulously.

"No, Phoebe - _The Book of Revelations_. YES, THE BOOK OF SHADOWS!" Piper stopped, letting her heart beat calm down from her anger. She turned back to the children. "As you all know, the Book of Shadows has always been a dependable part of our family. We've always been able to count on it to provide us with information and protection. Well, that sacred book, our heritage, and yours, has stopped protecting itself. This morning, a demon came in and he was holding the book. He was a low-level demon - didn't even have his claws yet. I blew him up easily. But if one demon can touch it, then others can too. They'll start coming in quickly."

The stunned silence that followed her words was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. None of the boys could remember a time when the entire family, all gathered together, had ever been quiet before. Even Phoebe and Paige, who apparently hadn't heard the full story until now, were staring at Piper with something akin to horror on both of their faces. The Book not protect itself? It was more than scary; it was terrifying. Within that Book held every secret and spell of the Halliwell line. With one simple spell from that Book, every single witch in the family could lose their powers just like that.

"Where's the Book now?" Chris asked cautiously from the back of the room.

"Upstairs," Piper answered. "In the safe, surrounded by crystals, a protection spell, the whole nine yards."

Chris and Wyatt looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. They didn't trust that to protect the Book. Wyatt nodded and said, "I'll go get it," before orbing away.

Piper looked between her boys as she moved through the room, heading toward Chris and Little Leo. The youngest of the three brothers looked just as confused as his cousins, though, and was giving Chris a baffled look. Piper approached her middle son. "What was that about?"

Chris sighed. "Mom, we know that you probably put every possible preventive measure on the Book to make sure that it won't be stolen, but..."

Wyatt orbed back in, the Book in hand. "We need someone to watch the Book at all times."

Junior blinked a few times and turned to Little Leo. "Creepy how they do that."

Leo made a face. "Yeah, tell me about it. And they're my brothers."

Piper, looking none too happy, threw up her hands (making everybody in the vicinity flinch). "Alright! Then let's take the Book upstairs. Upstairs, let's go. No orbing!"

Wyatt, having been in the middle of orbing as she said that, rematerialized with a pout. "I hate stairs."

Chris rolled his eyes and began to push his brother up the stairs. "Yeah, yeah, you big baby. Let's go."

The matriarch of the Halliwell line turned to her sisters. "Paige," she sighed as the cousins all marched up the stairs, drowning out most of her words.

Paige jumped to attention and moved to her sister's side. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Can you orb Up There and let them know of our little situation? Maybe they can, y'know, tell us what's going on for once in our lives!"

Phoebe appeared at her other side as she gently put her hands on Piper's shoulders, attempting to calm her down. "Piper, deep breaths. Remember, freaking out at the Elders isn't good for your blood pressure."

Piper scowled. "Yeah, well, it makes me feel good!"

Leo Sr walked up to them. "Maybe I should go to Magic School, try to figure out if there's some magical reason behind this that we don't know about?"

She immediately shook her head. "No, no. We should stay together as a family, a great big noisy family, until we have a better idea of what's happening. So if those assholes know what's good for them, they'll give us a little clue as to what the hell is going on!"

Leo winced. "Honey... You know they can hear you."

"Oh, put a cork in it, Leo!" Piper looked at Paige. "Well!"

Paige snapped to attention. "Er, right! Be back soon!" And she orbed away.

Henry watched her orb away before turning to look at the other parents. "What do we do now?"

"Now..." Phoebe ventured cautiously. "We head upstairs."

Piper gave a nod and led the way, following after their children.

When the parents entered the attic, Wyatt had already placed the Book back onto its pedestal where it belonged. All nine of the next generation was sitting around the attic, all staring at the pedestal as though expecting the Book to do something fantastic. Either that, or something horrifying. It was hard to tell. For many of them, they had only ever touched the Book as a learning tool. For Piper's own children, though, she knew that they had been relying on the Book for a while to save their own lives. It scared her more than she could possibly think on that they were taking over where the Charmed Ones left off, and it scared her even more because they didn't really talk to her.

It wasn't as though Wyatt and Chris went out of their ways to avoid her or to keep her in the dark. In fact, they both loved showing up randomly for some of their mother's cooking and to talk to her about their lives. If she had been naive, though, from the way that they talked, she would have assumed that their lives were completely demon-free. She knew that wasn't the case. Leo was learning, slowly, to open up more to her, but she knew that they both had a long way to go before they got there. But at least Leo was open and honest about the demons and evil that he encountered. It saddened her to think that she had to go to her most closed off son to get information on Chris and Wyatt's magical well-being.

Wyatt had only been fifteen when he stopped telling her about all of the demons he encountered. It was as though it became such a routine for him - such as talking to his friends at school - that he no longer felt the need to fill her in on every detail. Chris took on his brother's attitude by the time he left for college. She couldn't remember the last demon that Chris had even told her about. She knew, even if she never caught them, that Chris and Wyatt would often orb into the attic in the middle of the night to look at the Book. They would much rather leave her in the dark than let her know what danger they were in. She feared for Leo, feared for where he was heading in life, but when it came to Chris and Wyatt - she feared if they would even have a life to live.

Piper was just moving to sit down herself when Paige orbed back in at that moment. All of the living members of the Halliwell line looked up as she appeared.

Piper blinked. "That was fast."

"Yeah, faster than usual," Phoebe said, sounding almost impressed.

"Well, they wouldn't talk to me," Paige said, hands on her hips, an annoyed look on her face.

Wyatt and Chris glanced at each other in confusion.

"Wouldn't talk to you?" Little Leo repeated. "Why not?"

"They said they needed one of our children present for the explanation," the youngest Charmed one said, mimicking one of the elders in a floaty voice.

"What's _that_supposed to mean?" Piper snapped. She stalked over to the Book and gestured toward it wildly. "We're having a goddamn crisis down here and they won't talk to us till one of our children is there for them to bitch at instead!"

"Pretty much," Paige said, shrugging her shoulders. Then she turned toward Wyatt and grabbed him by the arm. "C'mon."

Wyatt yanked himself out of her grip. "Hey, wait a minute, why me?"

"Because you're the oldest and you can orb; let's go."

"Why not take Chris?" Wyatt said, practically attempting to hide behind the shorter brother. "He's more into that whitelighter politics stuff than I am."

Chris dodged his brother. "Oh, Hell no!"

"Wyatt," his father reprimanded suddenly. "Go with your aunt. It won't kill you."

"Easy for you to say," Wyatt muttered, but this time he didn't dodge Paige as she reached out to grab his arm. A moment later, they disappeared in a shower of orbs.

"Now what?" Junior asked, looking at his father.

Henry shrugged. "We wait for your mother and Wyatt to return."

"And protect the book while we do," Chris said ominously.

- _COMMERCIAL BREAK -_

Wyatt cleared his throat awkwardly as he looked around the white and floaty place that they only knew as Up There. Really, what kind of name was that anyway? Up There. Shouldn't they give it some sort of far more fancy name that actually made it sound like some high, powerful place? At least the Underworld had a dark and foreboding name. "Underworld" was much better than just saying "Down There," though Wyatt had been known to just call it that when he felt like it, too. That was more to make fun of it, though. Which brought him back to the point of why Up There was simply known as Up There. Sure, they were also the Heavens, but it wasn't _the_Heaven, so that was almost a misconception, wasn't it?

"Wyatt!"

The blond witch started at the sudden call of his name, and he turned to look at his annoyed aunt. "Er... yes?"

"You going to just stand there and stare off into space?"

The eldest Halliwell brother sighed, frustrated. "Not like there's much else we can do. They won't see us. I thought you said they wanted to see us."

Even Paige adopted an annoyed expression at that. "They did. I guess they changed their minds."

He made a face. "Does that mean I can go back home now?"

"No," Aunt Paige said immediately. She paused for a moment before adding, "They might just be discussing what we're here to talk about, figuring out what they're going to tell us."

Wyatt glared suspiciously at that. "In other words... figure out how they can be perfectly cryptic once again?"

Paige nodded. "Pretty much."

He rolled his eyes. "Great. Just what I wanted to hear."

"Oh, perk up, grumpy. This place ain't so bad. And besides, you might be working for these Elders one day."

The smile on Paige's face made Wyatt severely suspicious. "Me? Work for the Elders? Why do you say that?"

Paige shrugged. "Well, you're part witch, part whitelighter, just like I am, and look at me. I wouldn't be surprised."

"I would," Wyatt replied. "Considering how much of a fan of the Elders my mom is and the fact that I'm her son... I'd say the idea of me becoming a whitelighter is doubtful. Besides, I'd rather not. My life's busy enough as it is."

Paige elbowed him. "Ah, lighten up, Wyatt! Who knows? You may even grow to love it!"

Wyatt stared at his aunt for a very long moment before saying, "Why do I get the feeling that you know more than you're letting on?"

She just smiled mysteriously.

-_ FADE TO BLACK_ -

Time passed as the Halliwell clan waited for Wyatt and Paige to come back. The atmosphere of the room had changed drastically since everyone had first arrived. There was a heavy silence that had settled all across the attic. From the look of things, Chris could only assume that each and every member of their family had something heavy weighing on their minds. Not that he could blame them, considering the circumstances, and really, he was almost frightened by this entire thing.

Growing up and believing that something was invincible and infallible, and it suddenly not being any of those things was a very scary thing. Looking at Little Leo next to him, though, he knew he couldn't voice that aloud. No matter how badly he and Leo got along, he still worried for his little brother, and he wanted nothing more than to make him feel safe and like everything was going to be alright. Being an empath made it harder for the youngest brother to believe anything the older brothers said anymore, especially when they were lying, but Chris still felt the need to try.

His mother's voice suddenly broke through the eerie silent.

"Leo..." Piper began, looking at her husband.

"No, Piper. I know what you're going to say, and the answer is no." Leo cut her off. "I'm staying here."

"Me too," Henry piped up, realizing where this was going.

"It's not safe for the two of you," Phoebe jumped in, trying to help her sister out.

"It's not safe for any of us to be here," Leo said, "and I'm not leaving my wife and children to fight something on their own. I want to help."

"I do too."

Chris shook his head sadly at his father. "But, Dad, you don't have powers."

"We don't need powers," Henry said, stubbornly. "There's other ways to help out. Potions, right? And I'm a pretty good aim. I can at least slow down a demon if nothing else."

"I've been doing this long enough to know how to survive," Leo promised. He reached out toward his wife gently. "Piper, please."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Fine," she sighed, obviously unhappy. "But I can't speak for Paige, Henry."

"I know." He nodded. "I'll talk to her personally when she gets back."

_- FADE TO BLACK -_

Paige and Wyatt orbed back down to Halliwell manor, talking on their way down. Piper could hear Wyatt complaining about the current situation, and having been chosen to see the Elders. She smiled. Wyatt had come to inherit his mother's discomfort with the "all powerful Elders." As much as she tried to accept them, she still held much disdain for their ways of dealing with things. She was happy to know that Kyle was slowly making his own changes "Up There."

"Aunt Paige, what the hell-?"

Paige immediately cut him off. "Watch your language. You may be half my age but I still have twice the experience."

Chris chuckled under his breath. Wyatt never really had any tact. And when he heard Wyatt's sigh, his chuckle was no longer covered by his fake cough. The silence in the room erupted with laughter.

When Wyatt and Paige got to the attic, Wyatt's face grew a dark shade of red.

Chris took his opportunity, "Aww, is wittle King Artur embawassed?"

"Shut up."

"What are you gonna do? Throw your sword at me?"

"I'm gonna throw something at you," Wyatt threatened under his breath.

Piper interrupted her boys. She always hated it when they fought. "Watch it, boys."

The hoard of Halliwell cousins watched as Chris and Wyatt said in unison, "Yes, mother."

Leo Jr. could even hear Prudence say from across the room, "I hope I can do that when I have kids."

Uncle Coop shot her a look, as if to say, 'Not until you're well over 30.'

Aunt Phoebe grabbed her husband's hand, having understood his secret remark to their oldest daughter. She turned to Paige and Wyatt immediately, however, instead of responding to the silent exchange between father and daughter. "What did they have to say?"

The emotions in the room shifted. Little Leo was relieved for the comedic release earlier, but now he felt the fear and anticipation that the adults felt, and the confusion of the children. His headache was slowly coming back, and he wished that he could be excluded from the news. Wyatt immediately became frustrated.

"Oh, what did they have to say? Well, they had a number of things to say. Half of it was a lecture-"

"The book stopped protecting itself because it is ready to move on to the next generation of witches." Aunt Paige explained, while Wyatt continued on his rant.

"As if this was our fault! As if we _wanted_this to happen! They just-"

Paige shot a glare toward him, as she tried to continue, "So it will begin to...it will begin to..."

Piper finally snapped. "Wyatt, shut it!" Then in a calmer tone, she continued, "I can't hear your Aunt Paige talking."

Wyatt sat down next to Chris. Both of them could hear Henry Jr. as he mumbled to the twins, "Mama's boy."

Paige took a sharp turn. "Junior? Do you have something to share?"

Leo Jr. was reminded of his high school English teacher. Aunt Phoebe slyly scooted next to him and held his hand, hoping that her physical energy would calm him. Whatever she was doing had helped, but he knew that it wasn't a permanent fix. This was easier to endure than high school had been but not anymore pleasant.

Junior shut his mouth quickly. Aunt Paige gave him a stern look before continuing on. "Where was I? Oh, whatever, I'll just start over. Basically, the Book is getting ready to move on to the next generation of witches. While it's doing that, though, it's letting down its guard in order to assess who will be the best candidates. Once it's found its proper owners, it will restore the protective shield surrounding it."

Aunt Phoebe immediately started questioning. "So, the book decides who it goes to? We can't make that decision ourselves?"

"Well, apparently, Prudence - no, not you dear, you're ancestor - our Great-Great-Great-whatever-grandmother thought that she would be having a second child. At the time when she was alive, there were many fights over property that had been passed down, especially in a magical household since witch hunters were notorious for tearing households apart. So, she came up with this magical solution. While she didn't have a second child, the Elders said that it came in handy for P. Baxter and P. Bowen."

Leo Jr., Chris, and Wyatt looked at each other. Chris spoke up. "Who will the book go to? One person, or a set of siblings?"

Wyatt spoke up with a grave look on his face. "It will go to a set of siblings."

Prudence looked at the brothers, "So this means we're competing?"

Uncle Coop quietly laughed. "You can't compete for the book's love. It'll just choose whoever is worthiest."

Now it was Uncle Henry's turn to laugh. "You know, I've heard a bunch of crazy sh-crap since I joined this family, but so far, inanimate objects have stayed inanimate objects. Except for the lamp, but that was a shapeshifter... and the teddy bear, but that was Wyatt's projection powers... and the... okay, look, that's not the point. Mostly, unless there's been a creature or a human behind it, inanimate objects have stayed inanimate. What's behind it now?"

Paige smiled, "It's just a spell, sweetie."

Henry looked back at her. "Okay, that's all I wanted to know. I'll just be quiet now."

Junior jumped up casually from where he was sitting. Leo Jr. immediately felt a feeling of loneliness exuding from his closest cousin. Leo Sr. spoke up before Junior could be questioned, however.

"Regardless of this news, the book still has to be protected."

Wyatt nodded. "Agreed. We need someone to watch the book at all times."

Chris looked around and hung his head. "Well, I don't think we can depend on our generation at the moment, so more than half of the people in this room have to be discounted."

Prudence looked incredulous. "Excuse me?"

"What my dear brother is trying to say, I think," Wyatt began brightly, "is that most of the witches in this room happen to be underage and-or under-prepared for the incoming demon attacks that will most likely plague us for the next 24 hours or however long this is going to take. So, while everybody needs to stay close to the Book... I for one am completely against putting, say, Penny in charge of watching it."

"Agreed," Phoebe and Coop said immediately.

The nine-year-old pouted.

"We should be sending the younger kids out of the house," Piper tried to say, but Paige seemed to guess that that was coming.

"We can't," she said, sounding worried as the words past her lips. She was watching the twins sitting there with an uneasy expression. "The Elders said that the fastest way for this whole thing to be over with is to keep everybody close at hand and everybody else not needed as far away as possible. Granted, I told them under no uncertain terms were we going to leave our children here all by themselves while the Book has an identity crisis, but any other interference - they assume - will make it take longer."

"In other words," Wyatt said, taking over. "We're all under house arrest until further noted. We might as well all call into work now."

"Why can't we just... force the Book to choose now?" Penny asked quietly, looking around the room.

"Probably because, for one, all of us need the Book collectively. And for another we can't try and persuade it," Leo Jr. was finally able to say.

Chris smiled almost proudly at his little brother as he nodded. "That's exactly the reason."

The twins, although quiet throughout the whole exchange in the attic, looked at each other in shock. Jules turned to Leo Jr. upon his ruling. "You can't persuade a book!"

Wyatt sarcastically remarked, "Pssh. You can't." He ignored the looks that he was receiving from the adults before continuing, "No, but seriously... Nothing that we do now will affect the Book's decision or how long it will take as long we are the only ones here - other than demons of course. It will go to whoever it is meant to go to. Destiny, and all that crap."

- _COMMERCIAL BREAK_ -

The attic was surprisingly quiet the hours following Paige and Wyatt's return. So much so that the family finally started to feel better about leaving the Book on its pedestal and only leaving a few of them to watch it at a time.

Piper, Paige, and Phoebe took the young ones out of the room-to them, the twins and Phoebe's two youngest were not capable of handling the job that this would require. Phoebe attempted to take Prue out as well, but was immediately met with a rebuttal.

"No! Are you kidding me? Leo and Junior are both not too much older than me. AND this would be leaving it up to the _guys!_Aunt Paige, you know how sexist this is!"

Paige and Piper laughed, but Phoebe only looked at her daughter with curiosity. When did she grow up? When did she become more like her namesake-fiery and in control-and less like her mother was at her age?

"I think she has a point there, don't you, _Mom_?" Paige teased her sister.

"No. No, no, no. She's only 17! Phoebe-" Coop was ready to fight someone on this. She was his daughter, his oldest. She wasn't cut out for this-she was too delicate.

Phoebe smiled at her overprotective husband. But she also knew what Prue was feeling. Defiance. Telling her "No" now would only send her somewhere dangerous. Phoebe would rather keep her like her namesake and less like herself, to be honest. She took her husband's hand and squeezed it tight. He read in her eyes what she was thinking. While he objected, he knew that this was a discussion to be had somewhere else.

Phoebe closed her eyes. "You can stay."

A loud yell of "Yes!" was heard from the oldest of the half-cupids. Leo Jr. seemed to finally have enough.

"Jesus, could you stop?" he yelled from the other side of the attic.

Prue continued to dance ecstatically. "Take a pill and go meditate!" She told him. She was well-aware of his empathy, as she was given the same gift as well. However, being Phoebe's daughter and a cupid, she was well-equipped to handle everyone else's feelings.

"I guess it's settled! Prue and Chris will be taking the first shift. Let's get downstairs." Paige commandeered everyone out of the attic and left Chris and Prue to themselves.

Their jaws dropped, but Paige left before anybody could say anything. They looked at each other and glared before turning to other things.

Chris immediately went to the Book and started to flip through some pages. He took out a journal from his back pocket and began writing.

"What do you think you're doing?" Prue snapped at him. She knew very well what he was doing. She could feel the dreaded sense of worry coming from him, the need to be prepared. She asked regardless, to confirm her suspicions.

"Look, I know you wouldn't understand, but if my brothers and I don't have this book, we're screwed. There's no sense of jealousy here, but we need some of these spells. More now than ever." He continued to copy down _How to Defeat the Source_before moving on to the next set of pages. He stopped there, finding the demon Shax. On the opposite page, Aunt Phoebe had placed pictures of his final victim, Prudence Halliwell.

"I don't know why you're acting like you'll never see the Book again. Whoever it goes to will have to share it still, you know," she said smartly, but even as the words passed her lips, she sounded uncertain. Is that true? It's not like the others had any sort of obligation to share it.

"Not necessarily," Chris said distractedly. He was staring at the picture of his aunt, the woman that he never got to meet. He often got compared to her, from his love of the camera to his powers, but he had never met her.

Prue noticed his distraction and walked over to him silently. "What are you staring at?" she asked unnecessarily, because as soon as she was close enough, she could easily see the picture. She went silent for a moment, staring at her namesake. "She was dead before you and Wyatt were born, right?"

Chris nodded.

"You ever think about summoning her spirit and talking to her?" For once, the oldest Halliwell female was being completely serious.

Her green-eyed cousin blinked and turned to look at her before shaking his head. "Ah, no. We tend to leave that sort of magic to Mom." He cleared his throat and moved onto the next page, moving to copy down the information.

"You don't seem to think that the Book will go to you," Prue pointed out, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"I don't," he said truthfully, looking up at her. He shrugged. "I mean, if it was one person, I wouldn't even hesitate in saying that it will go to Wyatt. But since it's a set of siblings..."

She moved to sit down on the sofa as he talked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Well, then who?"

Chris watched her for a moment. "I thought that would be obvious?"

Noticing the look that she was receiving, she responded at him with slightly wide eyes. "You think it will be me and my sisters?"

He nodded without missing a beat. "The Halliwell line is a lineage surrounded by feminine energy. All of the best witches in our line have been females. The Charmed Ones are also a set of three sisters, just like you guys. Not to mention that unity among siblings is a big deal with it, too, and Wyatt's kind of a one-man show, I don't really like working with partners if I can help it, and Leo would rather stay out of everything if he had it his way." He shrugged. "I wasn't lying when I said that without the Book my brothers and I would be kind of screwed... but I don't think it's destined for us."

Ladybug found that she was uncertain on what she should say, so she finally just managed, "Oh."

Her and her sisters as the next set of Charmed Ones? That was actually a rather terrifying thought that Prue hadn't considered before. She suddenly wasn't so sure why she had been so eager to help out in protecting the Book in the first place.

- _FADE TO BLACK_ -

Henry Jr. was sitting in Wyatt and Chris's old room. He was told that it used to belong to his mom, years ago, before she met his Dad, but long after her adoptive parents passed away and she was a lonely orphan. A feeling he couldn't remember having, but the sense of not belonging to a family seemed to creep up on him at times like these. Why should he be here? The set of siblings the Book would go to might go to his sisters, but it would not include him. The Halliwell line did not flow through his veins. But in Jules and Mel? There was no doubt. They fought like the Charmed Ones - both together and apart - and they seemed to absorb the family powers quite nicely.

Sure, he was a witch himself. His birth mother had been one of his mom's first charges after the Charmed Ones' battle with the Ultimate Power. Whatever that was. And then she had died, and he had been given the name Mitchell and given the family Halliwell. But those were all just words when it came down to it.

He kicked his shoes off and laid on the bed - what was now a guest bed, but it still maintained that teenage "manliness." The colors were dark, bold. Nothing flowery, like what people would expect in Piper's guest bedroom. But then, most people assumed Aunt Piper was this flowery person that she really wasn't. That was something more up to Aunt Phoebe.

Junior knew them. He knew them in his heart and soul, but he was scared to say if he was a Halliwell or not. He could say he was a Mitchell, sure. Never once had he not felt like Paige and Henry's son; they didn't call him Junior for nothing after all. But when it came to a family that was so bonded by magic passed down through generations of blood connections, he hesitated.

A knock came from the entrance. It was light, almost apologetic. Junior lifted his head, staring at the door, trying to determine his answer. The door opened without Junior's prompt.

It was Leo Jr.

"Hey, Junior."

Junior's head collapsed back on the bed. "Hey, Junior."

Their customary teasing greeting left a small almost melancholic smile on both of their faces. Leo had never gone by Junior, which was a good thing as that would have gotten confusing, but when they had been in school together, it had been how they greeted each other almost like their own little secret handshake.

Leo looked around the room and marveled at how little things had changed. It was almost like a time machine that changed memories. Despite the room having been changed by Chris after Wyatt had moved out, he could still feel both of them, could still _see_them. Wyatt's dirty clothes at one moment, Chris' obsessive cleanliness the next. The window that looked over the driveway had so much more use when the room had been Wyatt's as it was often used to sneak out the oldest brother when he wasn't feeling up to orbing at the moment. Girls would be waiting with DJ out in the street in DJ's dad's Mercedes (his prized possession at the time, which was quickly made into junk after Wyatt and DJ used it for accidental target practice). And that desk? It saw so much work from Chris than it ever did from Wyatt, probably too much work at times as Leo could not count the number of times he had left his own room for a midnight piss only to see his brother still slaving away over some project or another.

That all seemed so long ago now.

"Look, I know you've got your empathiness in there, so don't go trying to act all "Aunt Phoebe" on me," a voice suddenly said, interrupting his reverie.

Leo was snapped out of his memories and his thoughts. He laughed.

Junior looked at him uncertainly. "What?" he finally managed.

The hazel-eyed teenager shook his head. "I'm just the last person that most people would compare to Aunt Phoebe. It's just kind of funny."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Why do you think I don't want you to try it?"

Leo smiled, knowing that it wasn't an insult, before he crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. He could feel Junior watching him the entire time, and the curiosity and uneasiness was rolling off of him in waves. Hazel eyes rolled upward. "I'm not going to bite, y'know," he finally offered.

"Yeah, well, tell that to your friends," came the immediate bitter reply.

He heard him snap his mouth shut, but he knew immediately what his cousin was talking about. He winced a bit and sighed. "I really screwed things up, didn't I?"

Junior didn't respond right away. He gave a small tired sight and looked off toward the window that Leo had been studying a moment before. After a small pause, he finally managed, "I know you were just confused because of your powers."

Leo frowned. "You never went off of the deep end because you couldn't control your powers."

He shrugged. "Yeah, but I didn't have everyone inside of my head either. Whitelighter, empath. Must suck."

"Now I know you're just bullshitting me," Leo said, frowning at him as he laid back on the bed so that he and Junior were laying shoulder to shoulder. "Empath, remember? Are you really still so angry with me?"

A rather uncharacteristic glare crossed Junior's face. "High school has really sucked for me, Leo. And you helped make it suck, so yeah, I'm still a little angry." He paused. "And things still haven't changed, even with you and your gang gone. People don't just forget."

He pursed his lips, trying to think of the right thing to say. He thought about Mark Lang, the ghost he had helped to move on a few months ago. At the time, the words had just seemed to come from him out of nowhere. Now, he understood why it had been so easy for him. Being an empath and a whitelighter at the same time should make talks like this easy. It should be in his blood to be the best damn talker in the city, but here he was, with his cousin, his former best friend, and he couldn't think of a single word to say.

"I'm sorry," he finally whispered. "I was so messed up." He sighed, closing his eyes with a groan. "I've had to say that to a lot of people lately."

"Yeah, well, you've hurt a lot of people," Junior said bluntly.

He glared at him. "Thanks. I've been hearing that enough from Chris without you adding to it."

Junior sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, leaving his back to Leo. "If you didn't want to talk about what an ass you've been the past four years, why are you here?"

Slowly, Leo sat up too. "Because I did want to talk about it... Just not like this." He paused, hoping for some sort of reaction, and then sighed when he got nothing in return. "And I wanted to talk about what you were feeling up there."

A sharp look was thrown in his direction. "What are you talking about?"

If Junior wasn't going to be soft with his words, Leo figured he could be blunt as well. "What was up with you feeling like you didn't belong when we were talking about the Book?"

The teenage witch stood and pinned Leo with a dangerous glare. "Stay out of my head, Leo!"

"No," came the immediate reply. "You're a Halliwell, Junior. Maybe not by name and maybe not by blood," he added when the other started to interrupt him, "but magic brought you to Aunt Paige and destiny led you to being a part of our family, so you're one of us. For better or worse." The last part was said with his own bitterness unintentionally coming through. "But right now your sisters need you. The last thing we need is for the Book to choose the three of you and for one of you to have checked yourself out of the trio."

"I'm not checking myself out!" he said defensively.

Leo raised an eyebrow, and mentally, he could just imagine how much like Chris he looked at the moment. "If the Book does end up choosing Jules and Mel only, what then? Will you just stop talking to them? Never help them in this great destiny in store for them?"

"What? No!"

"Then what's the big deal!" Leo stood and moved to head toward the door, but he didn't leave. "If you're going to be there anyway for your sisters, no matter what your role is in this, what does it matter if you're destiny is written in the stars or not?"

"I guess... it doesn't," Junior said hesitantly.

"Well, there you go then."

"You're an ass," was the curt definitely not grateful reply.

Leo's hand was on the doorknob when he heard that. He gave a small sigh and looked over his shoulder. "I'm trying not to be," he said quietly. "But it seems most people are of the belief that people can't change." Then, he left.

- _FADE TO BLACK_ -

"I'm really sorry, Ryan, but something came up." Wyatt was sitting in front of one of the telecomputers, a video call open on one half of the screen while the other half had his email. Because Ryan was on his cell phone, there wasn't any video feed coming through, leaving just a blank screen.

"What sort of thing?" the voice asked through the speakers.

"Family thing," he replied with a sigh that he knew he probably should have held in.

"Everything okay?" his classmate asked.

Wyatt gave a shrug even though he knew that Ryan couldn't see it. "Yeah, yeah, everything's fine. Just, y'know, stuff I gotta deal with."

"Have you told Professor Calliway yet?"

The blonde winced a bit at the name and sighed. "Sending her an email now."

"Not gonna call her?" There was the definite sound of a teasing tone there.

"Definitely not," he said immediately. "I'd rather not get bitched at about my priorities being set straight for the next half hour."

"What about Trish?"

Another sigh escaped his lips. "I've already told her."

"And?"

"We're broken up as of two minutes ago," he replied listlessly.

He heard a hiss on the other side of the line before he sighed, "I'm sorry, man. That sucks. She seemed nice."

Wyatt cleared his throat. "It's alright. You know me. Famous for being able to hold onto relationships and all that." He forced his tone to be chipper. "Anyway, I gotta go. Thanks for understanding, man."

"No problem. Seeya."

With that, Wyatt ended the call and finished up the email he was typing to his professor before sending it off. That took care of informing everyone that he would be MIA for who knows however long, but it didn't make him feel any better. Trish and he had been getting along pretty nicely. She was smart, sassy, and had surprisingly even been in one of his classes. But this was the fifth time he had been forced to cancel on her in the last month. He was surprised she held out this long.

A long yawn escaped his lips as he moved to stand up and headed into the kitchen. He had only gotten four hours of sleep last night before his 1 AM shift at the hospital started, and now it was nearly 2 PM. He was really starting to feel it. A good cup of coffee would hopefully keep him awake long enough for him to get to bed at an actually reasonable time.

The moment he walked into the kitchen, though, Wyatt knew he had interrupted some sort of serious discussion. His mother, father, Aunt Paige, Uncle Henry, Aunt Phoebe, and Uncle Coop were all sitting around the table, speaking quietly, with frowns on each of their faces, but the second they noticed his presence, they all went eerily silent. He blinked, confused. He could not remember the last time his parents had actually acted this way around him, as if he was too young to know what they were talking about. It was definitely back when he was still in high school, though, so this was definitely strange.

"Don't stop on my account," he couldn't help but throw out.

Instantly, the other adults in the kitchen looked guilty, and he knew that his guess had been correct. He frowned a bit but managed to hold his tongue as he crossed the kitchen toward the counter. He reached into the overhead cabinets and pulled down some coffee beans before starting to set up the coffee maker.

"Coffee?" his father asked, realizing what he was doing.

"Yeah," Wyatt sighed, rubbing at his eyes as the little machine started up. "I had the morning shift. I'm kind of running on empty."

"I was wondering why you were the one Piper called," his Uncle Henry said with a smile in his voice. "Usually you're still dead to the world until somewhere around noon."

"That was when I was in high school," he corrected. "In college, it was until 2. Now? It's until I have to get up for my next shift or class."

Aunt Paige winced at the tone in his voice. "How long have you been up?"

"Since midnight," he answered, deciding not to lie.

"Maybe you should lay down, sweetheart," Piper said gently.

Wyatt shook his head. "Imminent demon attack or not, I can't allow my schedule to be screwed up now."

He must have said something that either made sense to the other 6 in the room or at least cooled their concern for the moment as they said nothing as he went about making his cup of coffee. He took a sip from the red mug before moving to join his family at the table, half realizing that they probably wanted to return to their previous discussion so he probably wasn't very welcome but he realized that he didn't fully care at the moment. Walking out into the den just seemed like too much work at the moment. He took another long luxurious sip from his coffee.

"What do you think about all of this?" Aunt Phoebe suddenly burst out.

From the way she spoke, it was obvious that she had been holding in the question since he walked into the kitchen. He almost smiled, but he knew the subject wasn't exactly a smiling matter. So, instead, he sighed.

"I think... that Jules and Mel have the strongest sister bond of anyone I've ever seen, even including you three," he said, pointing from his mother to his aunts, "and that between Penny, Patty, and Prue, there's some serious firepower there. Definitely witches to be reckoned with." He shrugged. "Even adding in Junior, sometimes I think he shares Jules and Mel's telepathic link. That kid is psychic, I swear."

"And then there's you, Chris, and Leo," Uncle Coop said, silently encouraging him to continue.

"And then there's me, Chris, and Leo," he repeated, thoughtfully. He shrugged. "I don't know. It's hard to think about." His fingertips tapped the outer edges of his warm mug. "Chris and Leo are extremely powerful witches, but..."

"But what?" his father asked gently.

He sucked in a breath and looked at them. "I don't think it's us," he answered truthfully. "The Book of Shadows is a legacy passed down from Melinda Warren herself, and we aren't exactly the perfect picture of the Warren family line."

Uncle Henry just looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Every witch born in the Warren line has been female, first of all. And second of all, they have all had only one of Melinda Warren's powers." He gave them each a look. "Chris has two of her powers, and I have none of them. And, well, Leo's stuck with being our brothers, so..."

He could tell that Aunt Paige wanted to say something about his tele-orbing, but she was keeping her mouth shut since she had long since figured out how to use regular telekinesis. He was often told about all of the powers that he had displayed as a child, and he could even remember some of them, but he didn't take much comfort in that fact. He remembered the story of his Aunt Phoebe losing track of her inhibitions and being able to do all sorts of things with her magic, and that's what being a kid was all about - not having any inhibitions. Now, he was an adult, and he was stuck with only the powers he had been naturally given.

"So, who do you think it will go to?" Aunt Phoebe asked quietly.

Wyatt waved off the question. "It doesn't matter who I think it will go to. I just hope it makes up its mind soon." He sighed, taking another drink from his coffee when he suddenly started, splashing scalding hot coffee down the front of his shirt.

"Wyatt?" his concerned mother asked.

But he was already orbing away, dropping his cup onto the table with a clatter and sending the rest of the coffee splashing across the surface as he disappeared.

- _FADE TO BLACK _-

Wyatt reappeared in the attic and immediately ducked as a fireball went flying over his head. His shoulder was throbbing, but he knew it was not his pain that he was feeling. One glance toward the podium had him spotting his younger brother crouched down in a ready position, his forest green shirt darkened with blood and a huge burn mark on his left shoulder. His face was twisted in pain and determination, but at least he was conscious. That meant that his injury wasn't life threatening. Yet.

The sound of twinkling orbs reached his ears, and Wyatt instantly called out, "Leo, down!"

In hindsight, he realized that the orbing could have been from his Aunt Paige or either of his twin cousins, all of whom could orb, but somehow he had just _known_it was going to be his baby brother. And Leo did not hesitate in responding to the command as he dropped to the ground, letting the fireball go flying over his head as well.

That was enough. Wyatt reached out with his powers, catching the fireball with his tele-orbing before it crashed into the opposite wall, and threw it back at the demon. The demon only looked surprised for a moment before he burst into flames and was destroyed. He gave a relieved sigh before starting to move toward the middle son to heal him, but Leo was already there.

"You okay?" he asked the green-eyed witch.

Chris gave a small hiss as the healing power started to take effect. "I've been better," he admitted.

"W-why did you do that!" a voice suddenly squeaked from the corner. All three boys turned to see Prue pressing her back into the wall with all color absent from her face. "Chris... You could have died!" Big watery tears were starting to form in her eyes, too. "And I... I just froze up..."

Chris stood, despite Leo's protests that he wasn't done healing yet. "Prue, I'm fine. And it's okay. You're not used to this, and we don't expect you to be."

Wyatt rolled his eyes lightly at his brother's stubbornness and came up behind him to finish the healing job that Leo started, but his eyes were on his cousin. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

"I... I'm fine," she finally managed shakily.

The door to the attic burst open as the adults that Wyatt had left downstairs came tumbling in. Before they could start asking questions, Chris raised a hand toward them. "We're fine! Everything's okay!"

As if to prove him wrong, Prue suddenly gave a small sob and went running from the room. The boys all winced as the adults looked alarmed.

"It's alright," Wyatt said with a forced smile. "I'll take her spot." He walked over to the Book of Shadows that he just realized had been thrown from its pedestal. When he realized that no one had moved, he added, "You might want to go check on her; she seemed pretty upset. First real demon attack and all."

Aunt Phoebe, despite still looking completely stunned, gave a nod and immediately turned and left with Coop on her heels. Aunt Paige only hesitated a moment before deciding that she wasn't needed after all and moved to leave as well with Henry. Piper and Leo didn't move, however.

"Are you boys okay?" Piper asked, looking between her three sons.

Both Wyatt and Leo looked at Chris, but he didn't bat an eye as he replied, "We're fine. Don't worry, Mom. We can handle it."

Piper looked like she wanted to say more, but she held her tongue as she nodded and finally left with her husband as well.

Wyatt dusted the Book off and returned it to its pedestal before speaking. "So, what happened?"

"Two demons attacked. They looked like mid to upper level, if I had to guess. One of them threw a fireball at Prue, and she just..."

"Froze," Leo finished for him.

Chris turned to look at him, and he nodded. "Yeah, she froze." He turned to look at Wyatt with a confused expression. "Why did she do that? This wasn't her first demon attack. I don't know why you said that."

"But in a way, it was," Wyatt answered simply. "I mean, think about it. Every attack before this was about running, hiding, surviving. This time and probably every other time after this, it's going to be about standing and fighting. This isn't her parents' fight anymore. Things are different now."

The middle child blinked. "You don't think it's meant for us."

"No," he agreed easily. "You?"

"Not even a little. Leo?"

The witchlighter in question shook his head.

Wyatt was quiet for a moment before saying, "You said there were two demons. I only saw one."

"Right," Chris said, realizing he hadn't finished his story. "After I got hit protecting Prue, one of the demons grabbed the Book. I managed to telekinetically throw it out of his hands when you orbed in. One of them flamed out just as you arrived. Must have scared him off, but you can guess what he's going to tell the others in the Underworld."

The blonde raked his hand through his hair. "That evil can touch the Book without being harmed."

Little Leo plopped down onto the sofa with a sigh. "Awesome," he deadpanned.

"How did you know we were being attacked anyway?" Chris asked as he moved to sit on the armrest of the sofa, looking between his two brothers. "I didn't even call either of you."

Wyatt got a thoughtful look on his face as he leaned forward onto the podium. "I felt you get hurt."

The hazel-eyed boy nodded with a look of confusion. "Me too," he said, "but I thought it was because of my power." He narrowed his eyes at the eldest witch in the room. "You aren't suddenly an empath, too, are you, Wy?"

He gave him a dry look. "No."

"Then how?" Chris asked.

Wyatt shrugged. "I don't know. I just... felt your pain." He brought a hand up to rest on his shoulder, right where Chris had gotten hit. "And I just knew that it was you. It's hard to explain."

The middle child raised an eyebrow. "Is that what happened to your shirt?"

Having completely forgotten about it, Wyatt looked down at his white t-shirt and gave a sigh. "Yes. It kind of startled me."

After a moment of silence, Chris shrugged. "It's probably just both of your whitelighter powers expanding. Remember? Dad told us how he used to be able to feel Mom's pain."

"Yeah, but you're not my _Charge_, Chris," Wyatt protested. "You're my brother."

"Maybe it works differently because we're only half-whitelighter, and we don't have any charges," he suggested.

"I don't know," Leo offered, looking just as skeptical as Wyatt felt. "Aunt Paige never mentioned anything about this."

"I don't know then," he said, though he sounded far from concerned. "But it doesn't really matter. We need to protect the Book. Half the Underworld could know that it's unprotected by now."

Wyatt gave him a look. "I wouldn't exactly call it unprotected," he said, gesturing to the three of them.

Chris matched his look. "You know what I mean."

"We'll figure something out," Wyatt said confidently. "We always do."

- _COMMERCIAL BREAK_ -

The same demon that had managed to escape earlier flamed into the Underworld. Despite his failure and his fallen comrade, he had a wide grin on his face as he marched into the demon bar, one of the few locations were many demons of different varieties would gather together without the direction of a leader. Nobody took any notice of his presence as he strolled through the bar; after all, if truth be told, he was just another no name demon among the lot of them. But he would no longer be a nobody after tonight. No, that would be changing.

He climbed up onto the counter and stood above all of them. Still, nobody even blinked an eye at him. Even the demoness who was tending bar ignored him as she just slid a drink of what appeared to be sheep's blood to a demon between his legs. He simply raised his hands high above his head and announced loudly, "The Charmed Ones's Book of Shadows is no longer protecting itself!"

Silence almost immediately covered the bar as all of its occupants turned to stare at the demon as if he had just lost his mind. Those who had not heard his words went quiet anyway, trying to figure out what the sudden hush was about.

"Now, is our time to strike!" he continued, looking at each demon eagerly. "They are at their weakest. And even better - the entire family, second generation and all, is at the Manor at this very moment. We can wipe the name of Halliwell from existence in one brutal attack!"

For several moments, nobody moved, seemingly too stunned to make a sound. Then, a burly looking demon in the back stood, formed a fireball in his hand, and threw it at the messenger before the demon had a chance to act. He burst into flames before being destroyed. The burly demon grinned evilly. "The Book is mine!" And then he shimmered out.

Several warlocks blinked out, following his example, and black orbs disappeared from another corner.

The Underworld would not be united by a single demon. At least, not tonight.

- _FADE TO BLACK_ -

"How'd they know?" Little Leo asked after several long moments of silence.

It had been nearly two hours since the attack earlier. The three brothers had taken up a pretty much temporary guard in the attic while Chris continued to copy down vital spells and potions from the Book. Downstairs, they could sense their cousins sitting around in each of their old rooms with their parents, aunts, and uncles still sitting around in the kitchen. They had not spoken much since the attack, each of them lost in their own thoughts, but now the silence had gotten to be a bit too much for the empath.

Wyatt looked up from where he was currently looking through a box of some of their old things. An empty cup of coffee sat next to him. Earlier, their mother had come upstairs with a tray of cookies, 3 mugs, and a pot of coffee. Chris had only drunk half a cup with Leo only nibbling at the cookies. The pot had been empty for about thirty minutes now thanks to Wyatt, and he hoped that their mother would be making a return trip soon.

"Who knew what?" he asked, glancing toward Chris who had not even bothered to stop what he was doing to look toward their baby brother.

"The demons," he supplied, sitting up from the sofa where he had been laying, tossing an old football up in the air before catching it again as a way to entertain himself as he let himself get lost in his thoughts.

Now, the football was hugged to his chest as he looked between the two other witches. None of the three men in the room had ever played the game; even Wyatt, who was the most athletic out of all of them, had opted for hockey much to their Uncle Henry's (who loved football) and father's (who had been hoping for a baseball player) disappointment. However, that didn't mean that all three of them didn't have vivid memories of Sunday afternoons being spent tossing the football around with their dad and uncles as the men united for that spare moment against the overwhelming amount of women in the family.

"How did they know?" he repeated when neither brother offered an answer. "Mom only just found out that the Book wasn't protecting itself this morning, and she vanquished the demon that had been trying to steal it. And then, just a few hours later, two more demons show up to steal the Book. How'd they know that it was vulnerable?"

Chris and Wyatt glanced toward each other uneasily.

"What are you thinking, Leo?" the green-eyed witch said bracingly.

"Well," he paused, wondering if he was about to shoot off some random idea and sound totally nuts over it but he continued on anyhow, "someone must have told them, tipped them off."

Wyatt narrowed his eyes. "Leo, the only people who knew that the Book was in danger was this family."

"Not really," Chris said, beating Leo who was about to start backtracking. An intense gaze had overcome the middle child's face. "The Elders knew."

Even Leo looked shock at that. "You really think the Elders would betray us?"

"Maybe," Chris said, though even he was starting to sound doubtful. "Maybe not. Maybe not even intentionally. But they never were the biggest fans of our family..." He trailed off as he caught the look on Wyatt's face. "What?"

Wyatt started and looked up, giving himself a shake. "Nothing. I just..." He paused. "I feel like I've had this conversation before... or I've heard it or something. Sorry." He cleared his throat awkwardly before looking between his two brothers. "That's a pretty farfetched theory."

Chris nodded, agreeing to that at least. "Yes. But Leo does have a point. How _did_they know? I mean, a demon trying to steal the Book is nothing new, but two attacks in one day let alone a week...? That's new."

"Things weren't always like this," Wyatt said as he went back to shifting through the box he had been looking in. "Attacks like today used to be pretty normal."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "You remember that?"

"Not really," he admitted. "Just bits and pieces. Just enough to know that as much as I complained about the demon attacks that we had growing up... I know it could have been a lot worse." He smiled a bit as he pulled out a rattle from the box and set it aside before shrugging. "Maybe it's a sign that things really are about to start up again and that's why the Book needs to be passed on and pronto."

The hazel-eyed man studied the blond for a moment before turning to look at Chris. "Do _you_remember?"

The brunette snorted. "I was, like, what? One when the demons went into hiding?"

Wyatt shrugged. "You were two."

Chris smiled bemusedly, almost surprised that he knew that. "No, I don't remember."

A quiet chuckle from Wyatt seemed to cut off the direction the conversation was headed momentarily. Leo turned to look at his brother confused before realizing that his attention was on something in his hand. "What are you looking at?"

"Some old photos," he said before moving to show the one that he was showing off. "Leo's first Halloween. Mom dressed him up as Prince Charming."

Leo's eyes widened and his cheeks went slightly red. "Nuh-uh," he said as he scrambled off of the sofa over to his brother to look at the picture.

Sure enough, just as Wyatt had said, there was a little baby in a violet getup and a crown on his head. He would have groaned at the embarrassment of it all, but honestly, the picture was rather charming. Wyatt was holding the baby even though he couldn't have been more than 5 yrs old himself, and he was dressed up in an outfit that had to be Tigger. The little blond blue-eyed boy had the largest grin possible on his face as he stared at the camera, showing off his missing two front teeth. Chris was sitting next to him, but he didn't even seem to be aware that his picture was being taken as he was staring rather intently at the baby and seemed to be in the middle of attempting to poke him in the eye. The 3 yr old was dressed as the Scarecrow, making the whole Halloween picture rather perfect.

"Oh, thanks, Chris," Leo said dryly. "You were trying to kill me even when I was a baby."

Chris, who had resisted making his way over at Wyatt's comment, couldn't stop himself anymore as he raised an eyebrow curiously and walked over. He took the picture from Leo and grinned, despite himself. "I don't remember this at all," he admitted, turning the picture over to read the description on the back.

"I do," Wyatt said with a smile. "We got so much candy that year. Well, I did mostly, but we had to throw most of it out because you and I ended up getting sick from it. There was some bacteria that ended up infecting the candy that year."

"Damn," Leo said.

"Yeah, Mom and Dad were pretty scared," he said as he remembered back to that year. "That's probably why that picture isn't hanging up, because it just reminds them of us being in the hospital." He took the picture back from Chris and grinned at it anyway. "Still kind of cute, though."

"You and your toothless grin," Leo snorted.

"Hey," Wyatt defended. "I ended up getting a dollar for those teeth. I was quite proud of myself."

Unable to stop himself, Leo moved to start looking through the box as well. "Is all of this stuff ours? ...Or used to be anyway?" he amended as he picked up a baby blue onesie with a mysterious green stain on the front.

"Demon guts," Wyatt said knowingly looking at the stain and then grinned. "Yeah, looks like it. All of our old baby stuff that Mom couldn't bring herself to throw out or give to any of the girls."

Leo made a face at the onesie as Wyatt identified the stain. He found it a bit disturbing that that kind of stain could be on a piece of baby clothing, but he wasn't really surprised. He decided not to ask which of them had been wearing that particular outfit when they had been splattered with said guts and instead just dropped the onesie into the pile that Wyatt was creating. He figured no answer would be pleasant.

"Remember when we went to the Bahamas with Grandpa?" Chris asked suddenly, a grin on his face as he picked up a photo and showed it to the other two of an older man and 3 boys standing on a beach, all in swim trunks, with their arms across each other's shoulders.

Wyatt and Leo laughed immediately.

"Oh, you mean when we were supposed to be grounded when Mom and Dad were in New York?" Wyatt said with a large grin.

"Confined to our rooms for playing Orb and Go Seek," Leo said, happy to finally come across a fond memory that he did remember and could share.

"It wasn't for playing Orb and Go Seek," Chris said, grinning. "It was for getting caught."

"As I recall, _you_were the one that got us caught," Wyatt said accusingly but with a smile.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you two couldn't find me," he laughed.

"Only you would think to hide in Nantou City, Taiwan," the blonde witch said with a laugh. "I'm never going to forget that city now."

Leo reached out and took the picture from Chris. They all looked so young, happy, and very sunburned, especially younger Wyatt. He chuckled. "Only grandpa would have come up with the idea of us going to the Bahamas while we were grounded. We probably would have gotten away with it if you hadn't gotten so sick, Wyatt."

He chuckled. "I'm pretty sure the sunburn would have given it away even if the vomiting didn't."

"And the Elders wouldn't even let me heal you," Leo said, moving his eyes upward to glare at them.

"This is a good picture, though," Wyatt said thoughtfully, smiling a bit. "I think I'm going to take it." He looked back into the box and laughed. "Hey, it's Wuvey."

Leo blinked. "Huh?"

Wyatt pulled out a dirty old teddy bear that was starting to come apart a bit at the seams. "I used to love this teddy bear. The only person I'd let play with him used to be Chris until I grew out of him. You didn't even like him even though Mom tried to pass him onto you." He gave the teddy bear a once over and chuckled. "I would have thought for sure she'd have given it to one of the cousins."

"No wonder I didn't want anything to do with it," Leo said, making a face. "That thing's filthy. Not to mention a little creepy."

"It is not creepy!" Wyatt said defensively, childishly hugging the bear to his chest. He then turned the bear to face and spoke down to him, "Isn't that right, Mr Wuvey?"

Leo dropped his face into his hand. "Oh my god," he moaned, somewhere between laughing and horrified.

A sudden strange feeling of shock overcame him, and he looked up at Wyatt confused. His eldest brother was blissfully unaware of the look, though, and was smiling at the teddy bear before moving to set him aside. Leo turned and looked at Chris instead and instantly knew that this was where the feelings were coming from. Chris had gone quite pale and was staring at a photo in his hand with a shocked expression.

"Chris...?" he asked uncertainly.

The green-eyed witch started and looked up at him.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah," he said immediately, moving to shove the picture into his pocket. Leo only caught the words _'Wyatt and Chris'_written on the back before it disappeared. "I'm going to finish copying some of the spells and potions down from the book." He stood and walked back over to the podium, Leo watching him with worried eyes the entire time.

"You plan on starting our own Book of Shadows?" Wyatt asked, only half joking, but his attention was still on the contents in the box.

"Maybe," Chris answered distractedly as he picked up his pen and went back to where he left off. "If I have to."

Wyatt shrugged. "It's not a bad idea."

Leo was still watching the other man, and he started to open his mouth to comment on his unease when Wyatt spoke again.

"Oh, God. Leo, look," he said, laughing as he shoved a picture toward him.

It was a picture of their father, passed out on the sofa, with Little Leo on his chest. He had to have been about 2 or 3 yrs old, and there was a permanent marker in his hands that he had obviously been using to doodle all over his father's face and naked torso. The picture, along with Wyatt's bubbling laughter, was so infectious that Leo found himself laughing along, forgetting about the strange mood that had overtaken the middle son.

Chris dutifully copied down the rest of the spell that he was on before his pen stilled. He looked up at his brothers, watching as they laughed over whatever old treasure they had found. He took a deep breath and reached into his pocket where he pulled out the picture he had pocketed before. It didn't make any sense. It _couldn't_make any sense.

It was a picture of him at almost the exact age that he was now. He was sleeping on the Manor sofa; he would recognize that room anywhere not to mention that flowery print on the sofa. His hair was longer, though, and he seemed a little more worn than he could ever remember being. On his chest slept a little blonde toddler that looked far too familiar to be possible, but something told him that the picture was real. He swallowed, his hands shaky, as he turned the picture over and read the print on the back.

_'Wyatt and Chris, 2004.'_

_It's not possible_, he thought immediately, his eyes wide. But then he thought of the dreams he had been having, the ones that were starting to make him lose sleep out of fear of what he would see when he closed his eyes, and he knew that it was not only possible but very much true.

Another burst of laughter from his brothers startled him out of his distressing thoughts, and he quickly pocketed the photo once more before Leo caught wind of his emotions. He didn't know how he would be able to explain the photo. He didn't know how he was supposed to explain any of this.

So, he wouldn't.

- _COMMERCIAL BREAK -_

_It was raining. It was fitting that it was. Chris thought that the entire scene was perfectly glum just like he thought it ought to be. He was crying, too, but because of his lack of an umbrella, no one could really tell with how still he was standing. He was soaked to the bone and freezing, but he could not even find the energy to shiver. His eyes were stuck on the three graves in front of him. His mother, Aunt Paige, and the newest addition, Aunt Phoebe, all laid to rest, side-by-side. The Charmed Ones were dead._

_A hand clamped down on his shoulder, and he felt hope for a second that it was his brother. As the 16 yr old looked up and saw his grandfather standing there instead, he tried to hide the disappointment and betrayal that crossed his face, but he wasn't fast enough._

_"I'm sure he has a good reason for not being here," Victor said stiffly. It was so obvious that he did not believe those words for a second._

_Chris decided not to comment. "How's Ladybug?"_

_"Heartbroken," Victor answered honestly. "She doesn't understand why her mother won't be coming home. She's only 11."_

_Chris almost wanted to say that he was only 14 when he lost his mother, but he managed to hold his tongue. He looked up toward the crying sky and sucked in a painful breath. "Wyatt should have been here," he growled angrily._

A flash.

_"Christopher!"_

_Shocked and unable to respond, Chris just continued to stare at the burning rubble that used to be his high school with horror. He felt his grandfather run up behind him and wrap his worried arms around him, but he neither took comfort from the embrace nor even noticed it. There had been students inside, teachers. All of them had been innocent. And his brother had... and now they all were..._

_"Thank God you're not hurt! I thought you were inside!" Victor sighed in relief, holding him tightly._

_"He orbed me out," Chris said tonelessly._

_"Who?"_

_"Wyatt."_

_"Thank God," Victor repeated, starting to look around for his other grandson. Sure, they hadn't been on the best of terms lately, but that didn't change the fact that he had just saved his brother's life. "Where is he?"_

_"He's evil." The words fell from Chris's lips as if they were a foreign language._

_He felt his grandfather's arms tighten around him in surprise. "What?"_

_"He did this," Chris said shakily. "Wyatt did this. He's evil. He's... Oh my god." His legs suddenly gave out from underneath him as he collapsed to the ground._

_"Chris!" Victor fell to his knees as well. People were all around them, but many of them were screaming and grieving parents. Nobody noticed another pair of grieving family members. "W-what? What are you saying? Are you sure!"_

_The 16 yr old turned and grabbed his grandfather's coat as he sobbed into it. "I saw him, Grandpa! I saw him! And he just..."_

_"M-maybe he's under a spell? Or a potion?" Victor said, his voice trembling, not quite willing to believe what he was hearing._

_"No, no... It was him... It was all him...!"_

A flash.

_"Where are you going?"_

_The nearly 17 yr old stopped in his packing to look up into his grandfather's confused eyes. He felt guilty for a moment before remembering why he was doing this. He sucked in a breath._

_"Wyatt's coming after me. I have to go," he said, throwing the necessities in the backpack. The backpack that only a few months ago had actually been used for schoolbooks and homework. But his school had been destroyed and finding another just did not seem like an option, not when the world was crumbling around them._

_"That's even more reason for you to say!" his grandfather tried to reason. "You have to remain safe, Chris!"_

_"No, **you**_ _have to remain safe, Grandpa," Chris corrected as he zipped up the bag and threw it over his shoulder. He walked up to the older man. "I can't lose you, too. I can't!"_

_"But..."_

_"I'll be alright," he promised falsely. There was no way he could know that, and he knew that his grandfather knew it as well. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crystal before pushing it into his grandfather's hands. "Take this. As long as it glows, you'll know I'm okay. And when the light goes out..."_

_Victor gave a sudden sob and wrapped his arms around the teenager's frail form. He seemed so small to the older man, much too young to already be going out on his own._

_"Don't kill Wyatt," his grandfather said suddenly and Chris tightened in his arms._

_He had thought about it, considered it, and realized that it was probably the only way that all of this would end, but he had never actually said it allowed. And now that someone had said it, Chris could feel his own tears springing to his eyes. Kill his own brother? Could he do that?** No**__._

_"Don't kill him," Victor repeated. "Your mother would never have wanted it to end this way."_

_A familiar ache rested in his chest as he heard that, and he squeezed his eyes shut. "I won't," he promised falsely again, because how could he promise not to kill the man that was destroying the world when he was possibly the only one that could? And then the answer to that question seemed to make so much sense to him. "I'll save him."_

_How? He had no idea._

The visions or dreams or whatever they were probably would have continued had a sudden wracking pain not ripped through Chris's chest in that moment. He awoke with a gasp, taking a moment to realize that he was still in the attic where he and his brothers had decided to camp out in sleeping bags when sleep had gotten too hard to resist, especially for the oldest of the three. For a moment, Chris thought he had been stabbed or shot, but as he looked down at his chest, he saw nothing there.

"_LEO!_"

And then he knew, just as quick as that, that he was feeling his little brother's pain, not his own. This must have been what Wyatt and Leo were talking about when they said they could feel his pain. He threw the sleeping bag off of himself as he sat up and saw his baby brother leaning against the wall near the podium with a look of pained shock on his face, two darklighter arrows protruding from his chest. He gave a pained grunt before sliding down and collapsing to the ground.

"_NO!_"

The yelling was not his own. It was Wyatt's, who had a look of fury on his face unlike anything Chris had ever seen before and for a brief moment, he was frightened. But then he looked across from Leo to see two darklighters standing there, advancing on the Book with looks of satisfaction on their face, and Chris felt his own anger rise. One of them had their crossbow pointed at Wyatt and a second later, an arrow was ripping through the air toward him.

Chris raised a hand, catching the arrow with his telekinesis and rebound it right back to the darklighter, catching him in the chest before he blew up. Next to him, Wyatt had not even flinched at the arrow as if he could sense that Chris would catch it. Instead, he was intent on conjuring an athame in his right hand that he then threw with expert precision, catching the second darklighter between the eyes. Wyatt was already scrambling out of his sleeping bag and running toward Leo before the darklighter had even finished blowing up.

Wyatt turned Leo onto his back, and Chris immediately called out, knowing he had to be the logical one, "Wyatt, don't touch it!"

He was ignored as the blonde witchlighter wrapped his hand around one of the arrows. Smoke started to rise from his fist as his skin literally began to burn from the touch, but he ignored it as he ripped the arrow out of his brother's chest. Chris winced against the pain that was shooting up from his hand. It felt so real that he was shocked that he wasn't getting blisters on his own palms. Whatever this new advancement in his link to his brother's was, it was strong and it made whatever pain they were feeling feel as if it was his own.

Already, sweat was starting to form on Wyatt's brow as the poison entered his system, but he had to ignore it. He had to ignore it for his dying brother. His hand wrapped around the other arrow, and he ripped it out of him as well.

"Wyatt, don't!" Chris screamed, this time actually jumping up to try to stop him.

But he was ignored again as Wyatt rested his hands over Leo's chest and began to try to heal him. A cry that he couldn't hold back escape Wyatt's lips as the poison shot through his system at a much faster rate thanks to using his whitelighter abilities, much faster than simply being shot with one of the poison arrows ever would. But he didn't let up. The wounds on Leo's chest slowly, so slowly, began to close, but before the healing could be completed, the poison overtook the Twice-Blessed and he blacked out.

Chris stood there, halfway to them both, frozen for a moment. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't heal. He _couldn't heal!_And there was no one that he could call. His father wouldn't answer. His Aunt Paige was dead. What was he supposed to do-?

And then just as quickly as the confusion came, it seemed to clear as he finished his run to his brothers and dropped by their side. "Aunt Paige!" he called out, praying that the confusion his mind was going through from this other world hadn't wasted too much time. "Aunt Paige, I need you!"

He was pressing his hands to the wounds on Leo's chest, the blood seeping through his fingers as he tried desperately to do something, anything to help him. All the while, his eyes laid helplessly on his older brother, who looked so pale that Chris was certain he could make out every vein along the older man's arms, neck, and face.

Finally, after what felt like forever, he heard a jingling behind him.

"Heal them!" he pleaded desperately, unaware of the panicked tears that were falling down his cheeks.

"Oh, good Lord," Paige breathed as she ran over to the boys. She only took a second to make a decision before she was kneeling beside Wyatt and holding her hands over his barely moving chest. "Jules! Mel!" she cried.

This time, the jingling answer seemed to come much faster, but time didn't seem to be moving in slow motion anymore for Chris either.

"Mom?" an uncertain voice that belonged to Mel asked.

"What's going on?" a shakier voice that definitely belonged to Jules continued.

"Come here," Paige said in the calmest voice that she could manage. "I need you two to heal Leo."

Chris heard two sets of footsteps followed by two gasps as they finally saw what Chris's body had been hiding from them, but he refused to look up at them. He was too busy focusing on Leo and Wyatt, too busy trying to keep track on the color of their faces. Why wasn't the color returning in Wyatt's face yet? Was Leo getting paler?

"Jules, Mel, _now!_" Paige ordered in her calmest yet authoritative tone.

This seemed to knock the girls away as they both dropped to their knees. Mel's right hand found Jules's left as their free hands both moved to hover over Leo's torso where Chris was trying to slow the bleeding. He didn't move out of the way; he was too afraid to, but luckily he didn't need to. Mel and Jules' powers combined to allow them to heal as a golden hue started to shine from their palms.

Chris remembered the first time that the twins had managed to heal. He had been there along with the rest of his cousins, and though he had initially felt a stab of envy, even then he could see how beautiful it was that their love for each other was enough to allow their diluted magic the strength it needed to heal.

It had been at one of the annual Halliwell gatherings. All of the children had been playing in the park when Jules had come across a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. She had brought it over for the rest of the children to see with sympathetic tears in her eyes - it looked as if the baby bird would never fly again with that wing - and had begged Wyatt as pathetically as she could if he would heal it. But before he could even make a move, Mel had been there, grabbing her sister's hands, and they had healed it together. They had only been 13 years old.

All of the shouting must have attracted attention, because behind him, Chris heard the attic door bang open. He heard more gasps and screams behind him, but his world now existed within only a 5 ft diameter, and until he knew his brothers were okay, he cared about nothing else.

"Why isn't it working!" he snapped at his aunt who was still working on Wyatt.

Beneath his fingers, he could feel the twins's magic working, knitting Leo's flesh back together as they finished the job that Wyatt started. The Twice-Blessed witch, however, had not seemed to change color at all and was just as still as he was two minutes ago.

"It is," she told him, even as her brow was knitted in concentration, sweat starting to form. "But it's difficult... What happened?"

"Darklighters," Chris answered in a wavering voice, as the tears came more freely. What was taking so long? "They shot Leo. Wyatt pulled the arrows out," somewhere behind him, he was certain that he heard his mother gasp, "and then he tried to heal him."

"So, that's why it feels like I'm healing someone in the final stages of Darklighter poisoning," Paige said, understanding as her eyebrows knitted together in even more concentration and the light from her hands started to glow brighter. She was pushing herself. That much was obvious.

Leo had started to gain back some color giving Chris the courage to remove his hands from the wounds in his chest. He carefully stepped over his baby brother so that he could get closer to the blonde witch who still didn't seem to be responding to the healing.

"Let me help," Chris begged, watching his aunt's struggling expression. He brought a sleeve up to wipe at his face. "Please."

He held out a bloody hand to her, Leo's blood, but she didn't even flinch as she took the offered hand. He couldn't heal, not alone, but this was not the first time that someone in his family channeled his magic to attempt something that he never could have done alone. He hovered his free right hand over Wyatt's body and concentrated on letting Paige's magic flow through him. Finally, he started to see some results as the veins in Wyatt's neck and arms started to become less pronounced and color finally started to return.

Behind him, Little Leo groaned as he started to come back to consciousness, and Chris allowed his relief to fuel his magic even further. Finally, Wyatt's eyes fluttered with signs of life and the rounds of healing could finally cease. Blue eyes looked up at him through a blurry vision.

"Hey," Wyatt said with a sleepy grin before blinking as he really looked at Chris. "You're bleeding."

"It's not my blood," Chris answered immediately, turning to look at Leo who was in the process of sitting up with the help of the twins.

The younger brother realized that he was being talked about and gave a thumbs up in response. "That hurt like a bitch," he muttered, rubbing at his chest.

Aunt Paige, who was the only older generation who heard him, simply raised an eyebrow at him.

Chris turned back toward Wyatt and felt a sudden wave of anger toward him. "What the hell were you thinking!" he snapped, jumping to his feet and taking several steps away from him. He was pretty sure that if he had stayed that close to his brother, he would have hit him.

Wyatt managed to look ashamed at Chris's tone, bowing his head in a very submissive position. "I, er, wasn't?"

"That much is obvious!"

Piper, finally able to shake off the shock of seeing two of her sons nearly dying before her eyes, managed to step forward and put a calming hand on Chris's shoulder. "Chris, honey, don't you think you should-?"

"No!" Chris snapped, completely ignoring his mother for probably the first time in his life. "Wyatt, you nearly killed you both!"

The green-eyed witch should have known, long before the words ever left his lips, that Wyatt would take such an accusation hard. He should have. But for some reason, the thought hadn't even crossed his mind how hard Wyatt would take it. The second that his brother's blue eyes widened as if he had just been slapped, though, everyone in the attic knew what Chris seemed to be totally missing.

Even Little Leo had realized that his usually logical older brother had crossed the line. "Chris," he said bracingly, moving to stand. "I'm fine. I'm okay."

But he wasn't done. "What if Aunt Paige hadn't been able to hear me, Wyatt? What if I hadn't been able to orb? What if Aunt Paige hadn't been right downstairs?" It was like he was pulling these accusations of hypothetical scenarios from somewhere in his memory, but that didn't make any sense because Chris couldn't ever remember being in such a situation before as the one he was cooking up in his mind.

"I-I don't know," Wyatt said in a small voice, still sitting on the floor where he stared up at his younger brother with hurt eyes. "Chris, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking! I just acted."

"_I can't heal, Wyatt!_" he yelled, causing almost everybody in the attic to flinch. The boxes and various paintings on the wall rattled with his anger as his telekinesis started to get the better of him. "Next time you decide to play hero, _don't_. Next time someone needs darklighter arrows pulled out of them, let me do it! Let me do it, because I can't heal!"

Wyatt seemed to finally find his footing as he managed to at last get to his feet. He was to Chris in a second, wrapping his arms around his younger brother. "I'm sorry, Chris," he whispered, but the attic was so silent that everyone heard him. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have done that to you. It was stupid, and it was unfair, and I'm sorry."

Momentarily stunned, Chris didn't move for several seconds before he sighed and wrapped his arms around Wyatt's torso gratefully. "You scared the shit out of me, Wyatt. Both of you did," he admitted shakily.

"I know, and I'm sorry," he repeated once more. He looked over Chris's head and smiled over at Leo, a little misty-eyed himself. "Get over here, man. You're the one that caused all of this."

Little Leo held his hands up in surrender. "Hey, you two carry on with what you're doing. I kind of like not being the one being yelled at for once."

Chris turned to pin him with a warning glare. "I can change that."

Hazel eyes widened in alarm before he was shuffling across the floor toward his brothers.

Piper gave a shaky relieved sigh. "Thank God you three are alright," she sniffled as she fell into Leo Sr.'s arms.

"Aren't we always?" Wyatt asked cockily as Little Leo reached them, earning a jab in his side from Chris.

As he moved one arm from Chris to wrap around the shoulders of his youngest brother, the room was suddenly illuminated with unnatural light. All three boys looked up in confusion before slowly turning around toward the source of the light. The Book of Shadows was glowing a radiant golden color that was nearly blinding for several seconds before the light slowly began to dim, leaving only the triquetra on the front shining before that faded as well.

Everyone in the attic stared in confusion.

Patty finally managed, in a quiet voice behind her father, "...What just happened?"

Aunt Paige moved to put her arms around her daughters, a proud smile on her face as she watched the grown men in front of her. "I think the Book just made its decision."

"Hold up," Little Leo interrupted, looking at the rest of his family. "You think the Book chose...?" He couldn't even finish the sentence and just wordlessly pointed at himself and his brothers.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Chris protested when the other adults in the room started to smile proudly at them as well.

Wyatt ran a hand down his face and muttered something that sounded quite a bit like, "It's out of its fucking mind."

"No!" Prue suddenly cried, pushing past her mother to throw her arms around Chris's middle.

The middle child looked completely taken aback and didn't seem to know what to do as he looked toward his parents for a little help, but Piper and Leo looked just as confused as him.

"Uh, Prue..." Wyatt started, hoping to help his brother's awkwardness, but he was cut off.

Ladybug looked up at Chris with watery gray eyes and then turned the same gaze onto Little Leo and Wyatt. "You three almost died today just from protecting the Book for a couple of _hours_... How are you supposed to protect the Book for the rest of your lives?"

The brothers looked at each other helplessly, not even sure how to answer when the fact that for some unknown reason the Book had chosen them as its new protectors had yet to even sink in. Leo was the first to look away, looking rather ill at the thought. Chris and Wyatt watched their youngest brother worriedly as he wandered away from them and moved to sit down unsteadily on the sofa, and though they wanted to say something (but no idea as to what) to their brother to make it better, Prue was still there, clinging to Chris as if he was going to disappear.

"Prue, we're going to be okay," Wyatt said finally, putting a hand on her shoulder. He looked over her head toward Leo and caught his eye. "We _are_ going to be okay."

"How do you know that?" she asked, and from the way that Leo Jr was looking at Wyatt, he knew he was asking the same question.

"Because they have each other," their father said with a smile on his face.

Chris smiled a bit and turned to catch Wyatt's eye, rolling his eyes a bit at his father's cheesiness. The blonde witch grinned secretly at him but then nodded at Leo's words.

"That's right," he said as he ruffled Ladybug's hair much to her annoyance, but her being annoyed was better than her blubbering on Chris's shirt. "Don't worry, Prue, I'll be keeping one eye on Leo, one eye on Chris, and one eye on the Book at all times."

Chris gave Wyatt a strange look while Little Leo coughed into his hand. "Uh, Wyatt," the youngest brother said, with an amused grin. "I think you messed up your math there. Either that or you're a freak."

Even Prue managed a watery laugh at that. Coop came up to them and put a comforting hand on her shoulder that finally seemed to coax her into letting go of Chris. She looked up at her father before turning her hug onto him. Not wanting to hurt her feelings, Chris simply mouthed, 'Thank you' to his uncle but said nothing more. Coop gave a nod over Prue's head to let him know that he had gotten the message.

"So," Henry started, an arm around his son as he looked around at the rest of the family. "Does that mean it's over?"

Before anyone could respond, the unmistakable sound of blinking came in from behind them. Chris spun around just in time to catch a glimpse of three warlocks before one of them was waving his arms at him, and he found himself flying through the air. He heard several people call out his name before he crashed into a pile of boxes and everything went black.

"_Chris!_" Wyatt was one of those that called his name. "Leo, get Chris!"

Little Leo was already on his feet and running toward his fallen brother long before the words were actually out of Wyatt's mouth. He threw a freeze toward the warlocks but grimaced when he saw that it only made them slow down in their movement for a second before starting in on their assault.

"Coop, girls, get everyone out of here!" Aunt Paige ordered, pushing her twins away from her as she threw the warlocks across the attic with a swoop of her arm.

The twins rushed over to the stunned group of adults, teenagers, and children near the doorway and grabbed onto Penny and Patty before disappearing in bright blue orbs. Prue, who was still in Coop's arms, realized what was going on and dodged out of his embrace.

"I can help!" she protested, refusing to freeze up again. As if to prove her point, she jumped forward and roundhouse kicked the first warlock that tried to get to his feet sending him crashing back to the floor.

Coop made to go after her, but Phoebe grabbed his arm. "Go," she instructed, nodding toward Leo Sr and Henry. "I'll watch after her."

The cupid hesitated only a moment before clapping a hand down on Henry and Leo Sr's shoulders. Both men wanted to protest, it was obvious, but they surprisingly managed to hold their tongue. Henry looked around for his son and realized that he was no longer standing with them.

"Junior!" he called out as he spotted him.

But the adopted witch didn't respond as he had already moved up behind one of the warlocks silently. The next second, Junior's hand was moving to clamp on the side of the warlock's face and both of them went rigid as Junior's eyes went an eerie white. Then, his hand was dropping away from him as he took a step backward, and the warlock adopted a rather terrified expression as he looked down at himself.

"AH!" he screamed as he began to dance in place. "GET THEM OFF! GET THEM OFF!"

Wyatt raised an eyebrow at the warlock and then turned to look at his cousin inquisitively. "What did you do?"

"Spiders," Junior responded with a bit of a grin. "I figure even evil has to hate them."

The blonde laughed. "You and your illusions."

The witch's grin grew.

Coop smiled rather proudly as he watched the next generation doing rather well for themselves and looked at Henry. "Come on. Paige won't let anything happen to him." With that, he hearted the three of them out.

Piper stepped forward, ready to blast the middle warlock to bits, when he caught her movement. His hand went up and a disc like shield appeared in front of him.

"Don't even think about it, witch. Unless you want me to rebound that little explosion onto your son here," he said, nodding toward Wyatt.

She hesitated, recognizing the disc as a sign of a deflection power that she had only seen once in her lifetime. Wyatt, however, was unimpressed.

"Oh, you have a shield? Me too."

Then, he summoned his blue shield and propelled it outward against the warlock, sending him crashing into the opposite wall. Before he could recover, Wyatt conjured an athame into his hand, momentarily dispersing into a bunch of blue orbs before landing on top of the warlock where he stabbed him in the chest. The warlock screamed out before exploding.

"No!" screamed the warlock that wasn't being affected by Junior's illusion. He summoned a fireball in his hand, ready to throw it at the Twice-Blessed's back, when a sound behind him got his attention.

"Ahem!"

He turned around to see the witch that had kicked him in the face standing there. He growled angrily, changing his mind about who to throw the fireball at, when he suddenly realized that the fireball was no longer in his hand. He turned toward the witch, surprised, only to see it now sitting in her hand instead. She tossed it up and caught it again as if it were a baseball.

"How did you-?" he started to ask, his eyes wide.

"You really should do a little bit of research about who you're attacking before you attack," Prue said brightly, her empathy channeling the warlock's powers allowing her to hold onto the fireball without any damage to herself. Tele-hearting it away had been the easy part. "You might have realized you were totally outmatched before it was too late." And with that final thought, she threw it at him, tele-hearting it halfway through the air, so that it hit him in the chest that much faster. He screamed out for just a second before being vanquished for good.

Junior stood watching the warlock continue to dance around the attic as the invisible spiders continued to crawl up and down his body, freaking the man out. What was he supposed to do now...? A hand came to rest on his shoulder, and he turned to look at his Aunt Piper.

"Don't worry, Junior," she said, her eyes furious with fire. "I'll handle this one."

Then, with her glare still pinned on the warlock, she blinked causing him to explode.

"Rise and shine," Little Leo said as he saw Chris start to come to as his healing finished up repairing all of the bruises and cuts the throw and landing had caused.

Chris winced as he sat up and rubbed at his head. "What happened?"

"Warlock decided to use you for a football," the youngest brother said dryly.

He made a face. "Why's it always gotta be me?"

Leo grinned a bit. "You did ask."

Chris blinked and then scowled. "Me and my big mouth."

Wyatt looked toward them and felt relief flood through him as he saw both of his younger brothers in the middle of a conversation. He started to walk toward them, wanting to check them over for himself to see if they were okay. "Chris," he called out, jogging toward them. "Are you-?"

"Wyatt, the Book!" Chris cried suddenly, leaping to his feet.

The blonde witch whipped around. A burly-looking demon had obviously used the commotion to shimmer into the attic unnoticed, and now he was standing over the Book. Before anyone could stop him, his red claws were grasping the edges of the Book - when he started to suddenly convulse as he was electrocuted from the renewed protection power. All present Halliwells watched with dropped jaws as the demon was finally blown away from Book from the sheer power of the protection surrounding it, and he crashed below the attic window.

"_Crystals!_" Chris called, holding his hand out as he orbed them from downstairs and then directed them around the demon.

"What are you doing?" Wyatt asked him, confused and more than a little shocked. "And does it always do that?" The second question was more directed toward his mother and aunts.

"No, not always," Phoebe said as she stepped toward the podium curiously. "If I didn't know any better, I would say it almost wanted to send a message."

"Some message," Leo muttered, slightly awed.

"Honey?" Piper asked as she watched Chris march up to the newly formed crystal cage.

"I want some answers," he said, finally answering both her and Wyatt as he watched the demon come to. The demon noticed him and tried to charge at him but was once again electrocuted by the crystal magic and forced to the floor once more, but he did not pass out this time. "As you can see, you're trapped," Chris said calmly to the furious demon, "so you're going to answer some questions for me."

"Go to Hell, witch," the demon snarled.

Wyatt came up beside him. "Answer him or you're going to regret it."

"I regret nothing!" the demon announced proudly.

Chris ignored him. "Who sent you?" When the demon didn't answer for several moments, he twitched a finger, causing the crystal by his foot to shift, making the entire crystal cage to light up with electricity as the demon was shocked for several seconds. Another flick of his fingers put the crystal right and he repeated, "Who sent you?" Again, silence was his only answer. He flicked the crystal back into place until-

"N-No one!" the demon wailed.

He stopped the shocking but narrowed his eyes down at him. "You're lying."

"Why would I lie?" he snarled.

"You're a demon," Aunt Paige couldn't help but throw in dryly. "That's kind of what you do."

"He's not lying," Leo said, moving to stand next to his brothers.

Chris looked over at him for a moment before turning to look back at the other two empaths in the room. They nodded showing that they agreed with Leo's assessment. He turned back toward the demon.

"How'd you know to come after the Book then?" he asked.

"Some demon came into the bar and announced that the Book was vulnerable," the demon said bitterly. "Obviously, we were tricked."

"Obviously," Chris said dryly, deciding not to correct him. "Who was this demon?"

"I don't know," he growled. "Just some no name demon. He wanted us to band together to come after it. I wanted the glory for myself, so I killed him."

Leo immediately nodded when he felt his brother's eyes on him, letting him know that he was sensing only the truth coming from the demon. He was rather grateful that the demon was being so cooperative. Hearing the demon's screams was not exactly something that he would call pleasant.

"And you have no idea who gave this demon his information?" Chris asked, just to make sure.

"No," he ground out, obviously pissed off over being held prisoner.

"He's telling the truth," Leo said unnecessarily.

Wyatt turned toward them with a sigh. "He's no use to us, Chris. He doesn't know anything."

The middle brother sighed and nodded. "You're right. I guess we should-"

He was cut off suddenly by loud screams within the crystal cage. Immediately, their attention was back on the demon who was writhing on the ground, twisting in unnatural ways, before he suddenly burst into flames and completely disappeared. Shocked silence reigned throughout the attic.

"What the hell was that?" Junior asked breathlessly.

"Looks like someone wasn't very happy that we captured this demon," Piper mused, her eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"But why?" Wyatt asked, completely dumbfounded. "He didn't know anything!"

Phoebe walked up to them and gave them a hard stare. "Maybe you weren't asking the right questions."

-_ FADE TO BLACK_ -

Down below, in a poorly lit cavern, the demon was forcefully flamed in, his screams cutting off as the flames finally went out from his body. He was left breathless, on his hands and knees, as he tried to get his bearings straight. He looked around, confused at the seemingly empty cavern, until a figure stepped out of the shadows. The figure was short and somewhat petite with a cloak covering most of its body and a hood that was pulled up to cover its face. A moment later, the cloaked figure was joined by eleven others who surrounded him.

Realizing that he was highly outnumbered, the demon's paranoia rose as he shakily moved to get to his feet.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "What's going on here?"

"How much did you tell them?" a female voice inquired from the forefront cloaked figure. "Did you tell them anything of anyone attempting to organize the Underworld?"

"Why would I say anything of that?" he sneered, trying to keep an eye on all 12 figures at once. "Those are merely rumors, and what respectable demon would ever agree to follow a bunch of _witches_."

"A smart one," the lead cloaked figure said easily.

Then suddenly the air shimmered behind him as a woman appeared clad in all leather. Before he could react, an athame was in her hand and slitting his throat. The demon gasped and fell to the ground before bursting into flames and exploding.

"Bianca," the cloaked figure said calmly as she reached up and lowered her hood, revealing short-cropped copper hair. "The Halliwells are still unaware of our existence."

"That's good to hear, Mother," the young Assassin witch answered calmly. "Do you want me to proceed as planned?"

"Yes," the other female said, looking around at the rest of the coven. "Do not fail me, Bianca, or the coven."

"I won't."

The young witch assassin bowed respectfully before she shimmered out.

* * *

Next Episode: "Samhain's Sight"


End file.
